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Ernst Zundel

Ernst Zundel, a German-born publisher, authorand civil rights activist, has been a majorfigure in the worldwide Holocaust revisionistmovement. For seven years he has been heldbehind bars, first in Canada and now inGermany, for his peaceful expression of non-conformist views. He is the most prominent“prisoner of conscience” in the western worldtoday.

He is the author of countless booklets,newsletters and essays. He has made a namefor himself as a prodigious publisher, a one-man public relations firm, and an able publicspeaker and organizer. Energetic, tenaciousand courageous, he is dauntless in struggleagainst apparently insurmountable odds andseemingly invincible adversaries.

Ernst Zundel was born on April 24, 1939, in asmall town in the Black Forest region ofsouthwestern Germany. He emigrated toCanada at the age of 19, where he soonmarried and became the father of two sons. Hiscareer as a graphic artist was successful, withhis work appearing, for example, on the frontcover of Canada’s national news magazine,Maclean’s.

Setting aside his thriving career, he dedicatedhimself to the great task, as he saw it, ofredeeming the sullied reputation of his fellowGermans. Through his Samisdat publishinghouse he distributed worldwide a prodigiousquantity of books, booklets, leaflets,newsletters, and audio and video cassettes.Simon Wiesenthal, the well-known “Nazihunter,” called Zundel the world’s number onedistributor of allegedly dangerous literature andcassettes.

Zundel is probably best known for his centralrole in the “Holocaust Trials” of 1985 and1988. He was brought to court in Toronto on acharge of “publishing false news,” andspecifically for publishing a reprint edition of abooklet entitled Did Six Million Really Die?.

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Ernst Zundel with IngridRimland at an IHR conference,May 2000

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Demonstrators in downtownLos Angeles, Feb.4, 2005 callfor Zundel's release

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Zundel speaks at IHRconference in May 2000

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booklet entitled Did Six Million Really Die?.

Zundel’s two lengthy trials – the 1985 triallasted two months, and the 1988 trial lastedfour months – have been the closest thinganywhere to full scale debates on the Holocaustissue. For the first time ever, “Holocaustsurvivors” and Holocaust historians wereclosely and critically questioned under oathabout their claims and views.

To wage the legal battle that was forced uponhim, he brought together an impressiveinternational team of revisionist scholars, legalspecialists, researchers, and many others. Fromnumerous libraries and archives in NorthAmerica and Europe, this group assembled at“Zundelhaus” one of the most impressivecollections of evidence anywhere on thischapter of history.

Among those who testified on Zundel’s behalfin the trials were Robert Faurisson, DavidIrving, Mark Weber, William Lindsey, UdoWalendy, and Bradley Smith. As a result of thetwo trials, an enormous quantity of compellingevidence refuting the Holocaust exterminationstory was presented to the court and therebywas made part of the permanent public record.Perhaps the most important of this evidencewas the historic testimony of American gaschamber expert Fred Leuchter about his on-siteforensic examination of the allegedextermination gas chambers in Poland.

Zundel was found guilty in the 1985 trial, butthe verdict was set aside by the provincialappeals court. It ruled that the judge in that trialhad, among other things, given improperinstructions to the jury, and had improperlyexcluded defense evidence. In May 1988, at theconclusion of the second Zundel trial, the jurydeclared him guilty. A few days later, he wassentenced to nine months imprisonment.

On appeal, Canada’s Supreme Court threw outthe conviction, declaring on August 27, 1992,that the archaic “false news” law under whichhe had been convicted was a violation of thecountry’s Charter of Rights. This was not onlya personal vindication by Canada’s highestcourt; Ernst Zundel secured an important

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With Ingrid Rimland in PalmSprings

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Zundel with John Sack

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Zundel with Ingrid Rimland inSan Francisco

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At work at Zundelhaus

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court; Ernst Zundel secured an importantvictory for the rights of all Canadians.

Zundel’s next great legal battle was fought outbefore the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal inToronto on charges, instigated by Jewishgroups, of promoting “hatred or contempt”against Jews through the “Zundelsite” Internetweb site (www.zundelsite.org), operated byIngrid Rimland from the United States. In thislegal action, as the Tribunal’s presidingCommissioner declared, the truth or validity ofthe supposedly “hateful” items was not aconsideration. (Ultimately the Tribunaldeclared the “Zundelsite” to be unlawful, butbecause the site is based in the US, the rulingis unenforceable.)

During the 42 years he lived in Canada, ErnstZundel was never convicted of a crime. Hewas, however, repeatedly a victim of violenceand hate. He survived three assassinationattempts, including by arson and pipe bomb.He’s also endured years of legal harassmentand repeated jailings.

After more than four decades in Canada,including a failed effort to acquire Canadiancitizenship, he moved to the United States,where in January 2000 he married IngridRimland.

His wife, a gifted writer and noted author inher own right, was born in an ethnic GermanMennonite community in Ukraine. As a childshe and her family were victims of Soviet ruleand the ravages of World War II. After the warshe lived for a time in Paraguay and Canada,and then for years in California. IngridRimland holds a doctoral degree in education,and is a naturalized US citizen.

On February 5, 2003, Ernst Zundel wasarrested at their quiet home in the mountainregion of eastern Tennessee. He was seized onthe pretext that he had violated immigrationregulations, or had missed an interview datewith US immigration authorities, even thoughhe had entered the US legally, was married toan American citizen, had no criminal record,and was acting diligently, and in full accordwith the law, to secure status as a permanent

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Toronto Holocaust trial, 1980s

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Toronto Holocaust trial, 1980s

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with the law, to secure status as a permanentlegal resident.

After being held for two weeks, he wasdeported to Canada. For two years – from mid-February 2003 to March 1, 2005 – he was heldin solitary confinement in the Toronto WestDetention Centre, on the pretext that he is athreat to national security.

His arrest and detention generated wide mediaattention. A few Canadian newspapers,including Toronto’s prestigious Globe andMail, and several independent analysts,acknowledged the injustice of his incarcerationon an empty pretext.

Among those who protested Zundel’s unjusttreatment was Bill Dunphy, a veteraninvestigative journalist and editor for the dailyHamilton Spectator. He spent six years probingCanada’s “white supremacist” movement, andgot to know Zundel personally. Although hehas no sympathy for Zundel’s views, in a hard-hitting column (Hamilton Spectator, May 14,2003) he told readers:

“Our government has seized and branded ErnstZundel, stripped him of his human rights, triedhim in secret and found him wanting, and willnow hand him over to a foreign governmentanxious to throw him in jail...

“... Zundel – who did this country a favour bywiping off the books our disgraceful FalseNews laws – has never once been convicted ofa criminal offence in this country, never oncefound to have violated the hate crime laws thatrest snugly around the throat of free expressionin this country.

“Calculating correctly that there was nopolitical cost, no ‘down side’ to slipping on thejackboots to kick a reviled old man out of ourcountry, our government cobbled together theirbest insults and innuendo, and Lord knowswhat secret ‘evidence,’ and branded ErnstZundel a threat to national security.

“I know this man, his local and internationalcontacts and I know this movement. And after

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reading the 58-page ‘unclassified’ summary ofthe government’s case, I can assure you there isno justice here. Their ‘evidence’ is riddled witherrors and misinformation, hearsay andinflammatory innuendo. Dead men walk again,and the shattered bits of shoddy secretnetworks long since collapsed under the weightof their own ineptitude are made whole andmenacing once again. It is a shameful piece ofdishonest, unreliable tripe.”

The Canadian Association for Free Expression(CAFE), a free speech advocacy group, foughtfor Zundel’s release. “Mr. Zundel is quiteliterally a political prisoner,” said CAFEdirector Paul Fromm, who also served asZundel’s legal representative in his detentionhearings. “He is being held in solitaryconfinement solely for the non-violentexpression of his political views.”

The allegation that Zundel might be a threat tonational security “is mischievous nonsense,”said Fromm. “Zundel has been politicallyactive in Canada for 40 years. He’s a publicfigure. His writings and speeches are availableon-line. He’s been investigated for years by thepolice. He’s an open book. Zundel has neveradvocated or practised violence, nor have hisfollowers,” Fromm added. “He’s a pacifist anda publisher.”

Zundel was held in Canada not because hisviews are unpopular, or because he was a“security risk.” He was in prison there becauseJewish groups wanted him there, and becausehe promoted views that the Jewish-Zionistlobby considers harmful to its interests.

This lobby is the decisive, critical factor in thedecades-old campaign to silence him. The onlysustained and institutionalized effort toimprison Zundel has come from this lobby,which includes the Simon Wiesenthal Center,the Canadian Jewish Congress, the CanadianHolocaust Remembrance Association, and theLeague for Human Rights of B’nai B’rith (withthe Anti-Defamation League, its counterpart inthe US).

On March 1, 2005, Zundel was deported to

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Germany, just as Jewish groups had beendemanding. Since then he has been held in theMannheim prison were he faces years ofimprisonment for the “thought crime” of“denying the Holocaust.” (“Holocaust denial”is against the law in Germany, France, Austria,Switzerland and some other Europeancountries.)

On June 29, 2005, the public prosecutor inMannheim formally charged Zundel withinciting “hatred” by having written ordistributed texts that “approve, deny or playdown” genocidal actions carried out byGermany’s wartime regime, and which“denigrate the memory of the [Jewish] dead.The first and foremost of the writings cited inthe indictment are texts posted on the“Zundelsite” website, which is registered andmaintained by his wife in the United States,where all such writings are entirely legal.

Zundel’s three-month trial concluded onFebruary 15, 2007, when a court in Mannheimsentenced him to five years imprisonment forthe crime of “popular incitement” underGermany’s notorious “Holocaust denial”statute. The 14 specific violations cited by thecourt included postings on the US-based“Zundelsite” website. The court thus upheldclaims by German authorities to punishindividuals for writings that are legal in thecountry where they are published. Jewishgroups quickly, and predictably, expressedapproval of the verdict.

In recent years, growing numbers of scholars,intellectuals and newspapers in Europe andother countries have condemned the laws insome European countries under which Zundeland others have been imprisoned, fined andforced into exile for expressing skeptical viewson “the Holocaust.” These laws, critics pointout, are selective, hypocritical and violate basicprinciples of free speech and free expression.

Ernst Zundel, who sometimes describeshimself as a "Swabian peasant,” is an outgoing,good-humored man who is blessed with a rarecombination of unflagging optimism andpractical ability. He maintains this infectiousspirit even under very trying conditions. He is

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spirit even under very trying conditions. He isan unusually alert and sensitive individual witha keen understanding of human nature. Heknows how to persuade, cajole and encourageothers to give their best for the greater good.He inspires confidence, loyalty and affection.

Of this remarkable man, Robert Faurissonwrote in 1988: “Zundel may once again go toprison for his research and beliefs or bethreatened with deportation. All this ispossible. Anything may happen when there isan intellectual crisis and a realignment ofhistorical concepts of such a dimension.Revisionism is the great intellectual adventureof the end of this century. Whatever happens,Ernst Zundel is already the victor.”

For more about Ernst Zundel, the injusticeagainst him, and the worldwide campaign tosecure his freedom, see the Zundelsite,including “David Against Goliath”.

See also:

“Ernst Zundel: Letters from Prison”

“American Rally for Zundel’s Freedom” (Feb.2005)

“Ernst Zundel: Prisoner of Conscience, Victimof Thought Crime”

“Who is Ernst Zundel, And Why is He inJail?” (Sept. 2003)

Updated: Feb. 5, 2010

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