This book began in the fall of 1987 as a series of witness evidence
summaries to be used in the then rapidly approaching second Zündel
trial (which commenced on January 18, 1988). Evidence from the second trial
was later summarized for use in preparation of the appeal to the Ontario
Court of Appeal in 1989. The project expanded considerably in 1990 when
Ernst Zündel asked me to put the summaries in a form which could be
published as a record of the evidence presented in the 1988 trial. This
book is the result.
Most of the considerable testimony given at the trial over a period of
three months has been condensed into summaries for the reader. The testimonies
of important historians, however, have been included almost in their entirety.
These historians are Raul Hilberg and Christopher Browning for the prosecution
and Robert Faurisson and David Irving for the defence. Every attempt has
been made to ensure the accuracy of direct quotes from the transcript and
the accuracy of reproductions of exhibits referred to in the trial. It
should be noted that the questions and comments made by defence attorney
Douglas Christie, Crown Attorney John Pearson and Judge Ron Thomas are
not direct quotes unless indicated by quotation marks.
My own involvement in the Zündel case began in early 1985 when I worked
part time in the County Courthouse library in Toronto at the time of the
first trial. I attended the proceedings during my free mornings and was
shocked by what I saw. There can be nothing more disgusting than watching
a man being forced to justify his writings, his beliefs and his opinions
before a criminal tribunal in a supposedly civilized and "free"
country.
Zündel was being portrayed in the media as a man of hatred; but the
man I saw in the courtroom was calm and always gracious to everyone he
dealt with. When he testified, he did not repudiate his belief in Germans
or Germany or Adolf Hitler. He expressed clearly his admiration for their
accomplishments and his disbelief that they had committed what is known
as the "Holocaust". Perhaps I had never really known what it
meant to be courageous before that trial; but I knew what it meant after
I watched Ernst Zündel testify to his true beliefs notwithstanding
his knowledge that the voicing of those beliefs would almost certainly
seal his conviction.
And everyday as I watched defence attorney Douglas Christie, his legal
assistant Keltie Zubko and the various defence witnesses make their way
through crowds of hostile Jews, some of whom spat on them, as I watched
them being savaged by a hysterical media, as I experienced the lynch-mob
atmosphere of that trial day after day, I learned again and again what
real courage was and what real dedication to the principles of a free society
meant. It affected me profoundly. When the second Zündel trial began
in 1988, it was no accident that I had also become part of the defence
team.
While Jewish organizations and the mass media expressed satisfaction that
Zündel had been convicted, many ordinary people in Canada were shocked
at the implications of the trial for freedom of speech and thought. In
a letter to the Toronto Sun, Lynda Mortl of Toronto wrote:
Why are we Canadians allowing a certain pressure group to act as censors
for us? And worse, to have a member of society brought to trial, probably
jailed, and/or deported for saying something we will not even be allowed
to read. The more I think about the implications of this trial, the more
angry and frightened I become. I am one Canadian who does not want Sabina
Citron, Alan Shefman or Julian Sher to decide what I will read or what
I will call the truth.
Indeed, the purpose of the prosecution of Ernst Zündel was to make
sure that ordinary Canadians would not have access to the type of information
contained in Did Six Million Really Die?. Even today, Canadians do not
realize how far the original "Holocaust" story has disintegrated
in the face of ongoing historical research and forensic studies of the
alleged Auschwitz execution gas chambers. The tight control of information
in this regard is a wonder to behold to those of us involved in this case.
Canadians who believe they enjoy a "free" press in North America
are sadly mistaken. There is never any attempt in the mass media to analyse
why more and more people no longer believe in the "Holocaust";
there is no transferal of any basic information to the average reader to
let them decide for themselves whether there is anything to what the revisionists
say or whether it is hogwash. Instead, Zündel and anyone else who
questions Holocaust claims are simply branded as "evil" and "hatemongers".
This book ensures that both sides of this ethnic dispute are at least available
to the general reader. The record of the 1988 trial is unique in that the
major historians on both sides of the issue testified and were cross-examined
relentlessly on their research methods, bias, sources and findings. It
records the only instance where Holocaust historians have been forced to
defend their assertion that the Jews of Europe were exterminated (mainly
in gas chambers) by the Nazi government during World War II. For the reader
it is a rare opportunity to see how in fact history is written, how indeed
history has become the tool of politics.
British historian David Irving testified that it is the reader who decides
what constitutes a "historical fact"; it is the reader who decides
what has been proven to happen in history and what has not. I therefore
invite the reader to read the evidence of one of the most significant trials
of our century and with respect to the story of what really happened to
the Jews of Europe during World War II, to decide for himself.
Barbara Kulaszka
August, 1992