"If you like, you can even attach my name [and credentials - if you like] to the quote. If I can't stand by what I say, then both my word and my name mean nothing."
This I will do. His name is Matthew Alexander Lauder. I had arranged
an interview with Ernst as part of his doctoral studies. I asked him how
it went. Here is what he wrote in response:
"My impressions? Well, Mr. Zundel was very candid and we discussed everything from eugenics to the German Football Team to the decline of the German culture in Canada and the Avro Arrow to the spy games that the ARA and Nizkor play.
As a person, I find him very candid, polite, and gracious. As a cultural leader, he is very experienced, opinionated, and steadfast in his beliefs.
Without a doubt, Mr. Zundel has been through a lot in his life, and he understands what qualities are needed to be an effective leader.
Most of what we discussed didn't catch me by surprise, except for one thing; and that was his thoughts on contemporary Germany and German people.
I find it troubling that he almost hates those German people, especially those outside of Germany, who do not show their "German-ness" . . . Mr. Zundel feels that they have lost something essential - something that makes them part of a distinct culture.
I tend to believe that Mr. Zundel would consider these little "g" Germans to be cultural traitors. Although I may not agree with him, I understand the reasons behind this steadfast belief and hatred for the modern German state.
Of course, if I'm wrong, please correct me.
As for my impressions as an academic, unlike CSIS, I believe that Mr. Zundel is neither a dangerous man nor a threat to Canada - and this is my professional opinion as a researcher in cultural and political psychology.
He is a man who searches long and hard for a truth - regardless of whether the rest of society believes in his truth or not. I will make sure this point is clearly made in my Ph.D. thesis and [hopefully] book when I have a chance to finish it . . . "
I know where the impression comes from that there is acid in Ernst's
soul when he speaks of contemporary Germany. It comes from memories that
it was Germany, his homeland that he loves and aches to wrestle from the
clutches of an alien occupation, that managed to put him in handcuffs and
threw him in prison for stubbornly refusing to stop asking:
"Did Six Million Really Die?"
This happened more than once. He has told me of one such experience in Germany.
He said he was the oldest and only one of two in that holding cell that
housed some 35 prisoners - the other was a dope dealer. The rest were pimps,
crooks, dope pushers, check forgers, gangsters, hoods and mobsters - and
all of them Third World.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Research is what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought."
(Albert Szent-Gyoergi)