Political Prisoner Ernst Zundel Sentenced to Maximum 5 Years for Heresy

MANNHEIM. February 15, 2007. Germany and much of Europe slides ever backwards into the era of religious fanaticism where the “wrong” religious beliefs could mean dungeon, fire and sword. Today, it’s not Catholic versus Protestant or mainline Protestants versus Dissenters.  The new heretics are those who dare to question the new state religion of holocaust. A German court today sentenced political prisoner Ernst Zundel to the maximum 5 years in prison for questioning the new religion of Holocaust            Germany is using its six-month presidency to try to export this religious fanaticism to all other European Union members, seeking to make questioning the new religion – the Hollywood version of Jewish suffering in World War II – a crime punishable by imprisonment.             In demanding the maximum sentence, the prosecutor Andreas Grossmann thundered: “ We must save Germany from political rat catchers like you!"(Agence France Presse, February 2, 2007)             “That decision was welcomed by Jewish and anti-Nazi groups in Canada and elsewhere. Zundel has been standing trial in Germany since November of last year in what were, at times, raucous proceedings.  The initial attempt to try him collapsed last March over a dispute with one of his attorneys, Sylvia Stolz. At one stage she had to be carried from the courtroom, screaming ‘Resistance! The German people are rising up,’ after defying an order banning her from the trial on grounds she tried to sabotage the proceedings by denouncing the court as a ‘tool of foreign domination.’ In the current trial, defence attorney Ludwig Bock quoted from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and from Nazi race laws in his closing statements last week as argued for Zundel's acquittal. Bock accused the Mannheim state court of not wanting to face a ‘scientific analysis’ of the Holocaust and charged that prosecutors one of whom has termed Zundel a "rat catcher" had defamed his client. Another of Zundel's five attorneys, Herbert Schaller, told the court that all of its evidence that the Holocaust took place was based only on witness reports, instead of hard facts. (Canadian Press, February 15, 2007) In letters from prison, Mr. Zundel had been preparing his wife Ingrid Rimland, who lives in Tennessee and runs the Zundelsite, and his supporters for a ruthless sentence as an increasingly frantic Germany State seeks to quell the swell of skepticism and heresy and or indifference about the new state religion. A few weeks ago, the German press was all agog that picnicers were using some of the grotesque impressionistic slabs in a huge Berlin holocaust memorial as an outdoor urinal. “Ingrid, rest assured - the outcry caused by the severity of the sentence will reverberate around the world and keep this case and the issues NOT dealt with squarely on the table.  These people do not understand the dynamics at work,” the German born political prisoner who spent most of his working life as a graphic artist and publisher in Canada, wrote recently to his wife. Supporters are awaiting news as to what the sentence means. That may seem a silly question. However, in Canada, Mr. Zundel would almost certainly have been given double the “dead time” – two years less two weeks – that he’d already been in custody. He would be immediately eligible for parole as he’d served more than two thirds of his sentence.       Paul Fromm Director CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION   Right-wing activist Ernst Zundel sentenced to 5 years for Holocaust denial   Canadian Press Published: Thursday, February 15, 2007 MANNHEIM, Germany (AP) - Far-right activist Ernst Zundel was convicted of 14 counts of incitement Thursday for Holocaust denial and sentenced to the maximum five years in prison. The 67-year-old, who was deported from Canada in 2005, was accused of years of anti-Semitic activities, including denying the Holocaust a crime in Germany in documents and on the Internet. Zundel and his supporters have argued that he is a peaceful campaigner denied his right to free speech. Zundel has been a prominent white supremacist and Holocaust denier since the 1970s.  Zundel ran Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi propaganda based in Canada. Zundel also provided content to The Zundelsite website, which has followers around the world, hundreds of whom have protested his detention. Zundel was born in Germany in 1939. He came to Canada in 1958 and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001. Canadian officials rejected his attempts to obtain citizenship in 1966 and 1994. He then moved to Tennessee, where he married fellow extremist Ingrid Rimland, but was deported to Canada in 2003 for alleged immigration violations. Upon arrival in Toronto, Zundel was arrested and held in detention until a judge ruled in March 2005 that his activities posed a threat to national and international security, and he was deported to Germany. That decision was welcomed by Jewish and anti-Nazi groups in Canada and elsewhere. Zundel has been standing trial in Germany since November of last year in what were, at times, raucous proceedings. The initial attempt to try him collapsed last March over a dispute with one of his attorneys, Sylvia Stolz. At one stage she had to be carried from the courtroom, screaming "Resistance! The German people are rising up," after defying an order banning her from the trial on grounds she tried to sabotage the proceedings by denouncing the court as a "tool of foreign domination." In the current trial, defence attorney Ludwig Bock quoted from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and from Nazi race laws in his closing statements last week as argued for Zundel's acquittal. Bock accused the Mannheim state court of not wanting to face a "scientific analysis" of the Holocaust and charged that prosecutors one of whom has termed Zundel a "rat catcher" had defamed his client. Another of Zundel's five attorneys, Herbert Schaller, told the court that all of its evidence that the Holocaust took place was based only on witness reports, instead of hard facts. In his own closing arguments, prosecutor Andreas Grossmann called Zundel a "political con man" from whom the German people must be protected, widely quoting from his writings, which argue that millions of Jews did not die at the hands of the Nazis. "You might as well argue that the sun rises in the west," Grossmann said when asking that Zundel be given the maximum sentence. "But you cannot change that the Holocaust has been proven." © The Canadian Press 2007