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Aug 15, 2005
Kevin Alfred Strom, who broadcasts the
highly popular Dissident Voices program every week, did an excellent
two-hour update interview, titled Strike at the Root: Part I
American Dissident Voices broadcast for
the week of July 24 - July 30, 2005
listen to the broadcast (mp3)
download the broadcast (mp3)
real audio download
TODAY WE have as our guest the historian,
writer, speaker, and activist extraordinaire Mark Weber, Director of the
Institute for Historical Review. Welcome to ADV, Mark.
MW:
Thank you very much, Kevin. It’s a pleasure to be here again
KAS:
There are quite a number of things I'd like to discuss with you, Mark — your
recent speech in New York, your recent interviews with news services, your
upcoming protests against the Jewish supremacists at the Simon Wiesenthal
Center — but first, let’s get your perspective on the recent developments in
the case of Ernst Zündel, the German-American artist and writer who has been
subjected to a decades-long persecution because of his views on German
history, Jewish power, and the history of World War II. I understand that
after two years of incarceration on phony pretexts, Mr. Zündel has finally
been charged in Germany.
MW:
That’s right. He was held for two years in solitary confinement in Canada as
a so-called “threat to national security.” This was a pretext, as even the
leading daily newspaper in Canada acknowledged. After being found to be a
“threat to national security” he was deported to Germany on March 1st of
this year, and he’s been held ever since in what’s called “investigative
custody.”
That’s a common practice in Germany and on
the continent in lieu of bail, which isn’t quite as common in Europe
as it is here. One good thing about this development is that the conditions
under which he has been held in Germany’s Mannheim prison are much better
than the conditions under which he was held in Canada. We’ve talked
previously on this show about some of the harsh, draconian circumstances of
his Canadian imprisonment, but in Germany his conditions have been better.
Just a few days ago — and this has been reported fairly widely — he was
finally formally charged, and I spent part of today trying to find out the
specific charges. I was told only that he has been charged under the
notorious Paragraph 130 of the German criminal code, which makes it a crime
to deny the Holocaust as a form of so-called “popular incitement.” That’s
the term, Volksverhetzung, which is used in this section of the
German criminal code.
KAS:
Well, what does that mean — “popular incitement?” Does that mean to get
people excited about the fact that perhaps some of the Holocaust stories are
not true?
MW:
It’s considered “incitement” even to say truthful things about the
Holocaust — or the Holocaust story — that go against the official version. I
cannot emphasize strongly enough that this is a blatant, grotesque violation
of the principle of free speech — a principle that the Western world, the
United States, and even Germany claim to uphold. The Holocaust story is the
only chapter of official history that it is considered a crime to deny.
Ernst Zündel is an outspoken international
figure in this battle because of the tremendous legal fight in which he
engaged in Canada during the 1980s in two very widely publicized trials.
Actually, for the last several years, before he was arrested two and a half
years ago in Tennessee, he was living pretty quietly in the United States
and had given up his operations in Canada, but against his intentions he’s
once again been thrust into the international spotlight.
KAS:
I understand there are 14 charges that have been laid against him. Is that
correct?
MW:
That’s right. I’ve heard there are 14 counts, but I’m unsure of what the
specifics are. In the preliminary indictment under which he was held before
he was formally charged, the most ominous of these counts is that he “denied
the Holocaust” on the Zundelsite, an Internet Web site that is actually run
by his wife. The ominous and dangerous aspect of this indictment is that
he’s being charged for an expression of opinion that’s legal in the country
where it was expressed — that is, in the United States.
I urge those listening to this interview to
consult the Zundelsite to see what’s there. You can find it by checking out
zundelsite.org or going to the IHR site, ihr.org, and going to
the links page. The Zundelsite is an American Web site that’s maintained by
his wife, not by Ernst Zündel himself. The Canadian and German courts
have contested this fact; they claim that he runs it, but I know for a fact
that that’s not true. In fact, one of the strongest indications that this
claim is not true is that for two years Ernst Zündel has been unable to
operate any kind of Web site.
KAS:
If she’s committing this “crime,” they would charge her if they could. They
can’t charge her, though, because she’s an American citizen, correct?
MW:
No, it’s not because she’s an American citizen. That’s yet another aspect of
this case that’s very worrisome. If she were to go to Germany, she could be
charged. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany whether the person is a
German citizen or not. Hans Schmidt was incarcerated for a time in Germany
on similar charges even though he’s a naturalized U. S. citizen.
KAS:
So, if I “deny the Holocaust” through some statement I make today, for
example, here in the United States, I could be subject to pr | 