Copyright (c) 1997 - Ingrid A. Rimland
"The well-known Canadian program, 'The Fifth Estate', contacted me and asked for my participation . . . the purpose of which was to show the alleged international connections of the 'Neo-Nazi Movement', or the 'Right.'
"It did not take me long to figure out what they wanted to do; it was a smear job of me. The hope was to paint me as some kind of international 'Svengali'-like character who basically was behind the 'Neo-Nazi Movement' in Germany and if possible, in Canada as well.
"I knew that this program could be very dangerous to me, and at first I refused to participate because the man who was to interview me in Canada and while speaking in Europe would be an extreme leftist intellectual who had even come to the defense of Pol Pot.
"The guy's name was Julian Sher. He was Jewish and I had crossed swords with him before.
"I therefore refused to cooperate and asked them to return to me all videos I had already offered the show as background material.
"The CBC producer called me and said that another man called Malorek would take over. Howard Goldenthal was to be the researcher.
"Reluctantly, I agreed to be interviewed, but told them that I would film the entire interview with my own camera team as well. I asked that they send me the questions in advance, so that I could prepare myself. Naturally, no questions were submitted.
"I decided, in light of my visa problems with the US, that I would not go to Europe with this team. Frankly, I feared a trap.
"I asked them to conduct the interview here at my house, when they [got] back from Europe.
"In the meantime, I had heard the kinds of questions they were asking. I realized that I had been right. The program was to be a typical CBC hatchet job.
"This was to serve as the basis of a new law suit against me and was meant to set the stage to remove my mail rights again.
"The crew came and interviewed me. They filmed for almost five hours - from which they would select four minutes and ten seconds, quoting me out of context and juxtaposing my footage and interviews with WW II Nazi newsreels and footage of burning German towns and rioting people in Germany.
"The program was aired twice. It immediately served for all kinds of calls to have me arrested, kicked out of the country, and to have my mail intercepted and stopped.
"Some German government bureaucrats beseeched the Canadians to do everything in their power to stop the avalanche of propaganda I was supposed to be sending to Germany to influence its youth.
"There was an uproar in Canada also, caused by the media.
"Back in Germany the prosecutor apparently said that I was digging my own grave by continuing with my information campaign. The prosecutor told the interviewer that a much higher fine, if not jail, was waiting for me in Germany when I go there to fight my upcoming appeal.
"(Remember, this was written four years ago!)
"The Deputy Minister of the Interior said that I was supposedly one of the six largest distributors of anti-Holocaust materials into Germany.
"The head of the Constitutional Police said on camera that I am a clever fund-raiser and that I brought young and old together - that's why I'm dangerous! The British, leftist, anti-fascist newspaper 'Searchlight' said the same thing about me - I was dangerous because I was bringing the older generations and their money together with the younger 'activist' elements of the street-marches etc.
"My crime is also that I intellectualize the struggle with speakers like Irving, Faurisson, etc.
"I fought and wrestled with the impertinent, cunning, cheeky and ideologically motivated questions of the interviewer. He got ever more hostile. I stuck to my points, over and over again. In the end, I was glad I made the program, for I learned a great deal about what my enemies are planning.
"By cooperating in the interview, I was able to get the inside "scoop" not only of German government thinking and the police force's plans, but also found out that my appeal had already been decided before I had even attended.
"All extremely useful information! Unlike Leuchter and Hans Schmidt, I had advance warning and thus was spared a nasty surprise and a German jail cell for five years!"Thought for the Day:
"Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you."
(Joey Adams)