Holocaust-denying Historian Cashes in From Hitler's Hair

Britain's Channel 4 TV is under fire for paying a Holocaust-denying historian £3,000 (17,200 shekels) for a supposed lock of Hitler's hair.

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The money was paid to David Irving, who was found guilty of denying the Holocaust in Austria in 2006.

Channel 4 said it had purchased the hair in order to have DNA tests carried out on it for a new series, "Dead Famous DNA," which begins this week.

Irving, 75, caused outrage in 2009 when it emerged that he was trying to sell Nazi memorabilia - including the hair – online. The hair was supposedly collected by Hitler’s barber using sticky tape on the sole of his shoe.

The sale of Nazi memorabilia is illegal in France, Germany, Austria and Hungary, but legal in the United Kingdom.

Irving, who has written widely about World War II, claims that Hitler did not know about the Holocaust until 1943 and never ordered the annihilation of Jews.

Labor Party parliamentarian Ian Austin – whose Jewish father lost his family in the Treblinka extermination camp – blasted what he described as the channel's “tawdry” stunt.

"This sounds sick," Austin said. "It's appalling that Channel 4 would get involved with a Holocaust denier in some bizarre and tawdry show purporting to be entertainment."

Other historical figures featured in the series include Marilyn Monroe, Napoleon and Charles Darwin.