A friend has called the many media stories around Revisionism ". . . an embarrassment of riches" - and that is exactly how it feels. It seems that wherever you turn these days, there is yet another "hook" on which yet another mainstream journalist is hanging yet one more revealing Revisionist story! When I look at what is happening, almost avalanche-fashion, I get a bit impatient with people who grumble and complain that Revisionists are making little headway.
The Leuchter story is a case in point. I have a Leuchter folder that is positively bulging. Here, Ernst summarized in his March Power Letter what he experienced around the Leuchter documentary in Canada:
Fred Leuchter's story going mainstream
While history was being revised, probed, dissected and effectively tried in court in England, the Errol Morris film was playing all over North America - from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and from Toronto to Houston. Even in far-off Berlin, Leuchter was seen climbing through the ruins of Auschwitz, hammering and chiseling away, tape measure and sample bag in hand. Amazing and telling film reviews accompanied these film showings. New reviews reached me practically every day - astounding to me, almost unbelievable. While I was in Los Angeles, I had watched the film in a rather deserted theater - that must have been an exception, perhaps due to the rather seedy location of that place. In contrast to my experience, friends reported crowded theaters everywhere - in Chicago it was standing room only and long line-ups outside. The viewers were generally described as quiet, generally young, mostly white - laughing nervously perhaps at odd moments. Many looked thoughtful upon leaving the theater; many more lingering in their seats long after the lights came on and the credits were over.
The Leuchter story on television
To my astonishment, late one night I was flicking through the channels when I saw my face on the screen. I was startled and thought I might have forgotten to take out one of my video cassettes. Then I realized the station was showing Errol Morris film excerpts, along with an interview with Errol Morris on Television Ontario, a province-wide network. Enquiries soon showed the broadcast was even repeated - apparently several times. I was astonished, for Errol had told me that the film would be broadcast on TV only in the fall of 2000 at the earliest.
"60 Minutes II" broadcasts Leuchter's footage
This very popular US program followed suit and brought an in-depth interview with Errol Morris and famous U.S. film critic Roger Ebert. Even though Ebert had written a poisonous review of the film - that is, its topic - for one of the Chicago papers (I believe it was the Chicago Sun) in this interview he said that the Morris film was a great film, many-layered, thought-provoking etc. He chided the Oscar Committee for not nominating it for an Oscar, saying they would not recognize a great film if they saw one - or words to that effect. Errol Morris was sternly chided by this "60 Minutes II" interviewer for not giving enough answers after raising all those troubling questions. Morris, looking straight into the camera, responded rather forcefully - not to say aggressively - that if he made people think with his films, he had succeeded as a filmmaker!
That is my point entirely - and that is why this film has enormous cultural and political value - not only for us Revisionists! It broadens the audience and accelerates and invigorates the debate. This film, despite all its flaws and "fine-tuning" it has undergone to please the Holocaust Hustlers, still makes people in the audience think. It must stimulate their curiosity!
I will give you one example that appeared, of all places, in the Internet movie section of the Toronto Star. The reviewer wrote:
Documentarian Errol Morris tells the sad, disturbing story of execution expert Fred Leuchter. An engineer and expert in electrocution devices, Leuchter was recruited by revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to compile evidence that the Holocaust never happened. Specifically, that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter did as he was told and ruined his career and marriage in the process.
You see, it's not "Zündel the Neo-Nazi"! The film impacts on honest people, and it comes out in the reviews. The documentary raises questions, which the viewers themselves have to answer. That is no small accomplishment in today's Holocaust-saturated world. To do it right across the continent on the silver screen, to new and largely youngish audiences, is every "propagandist's" dream! I do not regret having participated in it - in spite of its shortcomings.
Zündel-Leuchter broadcasts: Leuchter - The Unused Footage
Right from the beginning, before I ever flew to Boston to be interviewed by Errol Morris, I decided to couple a broadly based public education campaign of my own with the release of the Morris/Leuchter film. That's what we did - and still do! As I mentioned in previous letters, I had taken the precaution of filming most of my Boston interview with Errol Morris with my own expensive, high-8 video camera, which I had put on automatic on a tripod. I showed it to some knowledgeable friends, who thought it was very moving, very human, very convincing. Some thought it was one of my best performances yet. Errol Morris had needed quite a bit of footage of ours taken in Auschwitz in 1988 by Jürgen Neumann, our video expert. I offered to forego any fee if I could make use of my own interview. What could Errol say? Forbid me to use my own words? But I wanted to be fair, and in the end we agreed to a deal.
For over two months, the Zündel Satellite TV and Public Access programs have been playing our own Leuchter documentaries from our own studios, using our own footage. Now the world can see and judge what I said and what Errol Morris had to cut out to get the film shown in his version - or "their" approved version. Judging by the calls coming in, this was a pretty good idea. "Leuchter: The Uncut Footage" will soon play on additional Public Access stations across America. I am looking forward to viewer feedback. People whose minds have been stimulated and who watch the "Voice of Freedom" Television series undoubtedly will make the effort and gather more information on the Internet. Every Revisionist website the world over reports an explosion in the number of visitors in the last few months!
To that I only want to add that I intend to add to my various experiences in the media the skill of editing audio/video products - as soon as I come up from under. I intend to take a few classes, add a few software programs, get my coffee pot going, and simply dig in - big time! I hope I can do that this year! The Leuchter tapes alone are a goldmine as tools to reach out to the masses. For now, they are simply chopped up into eight thirty-minute broadcasts, but with a little skill and love we are going to have us one dandy little package. I consider these tapes some of the finest products that have come out of the Zundel-Haus in three decades' worth of work!
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Thought for the Day:
"Some things you just have to repeat often enough to believe them yourself."
(The late Ignaz Bubis, Jewish leader of Germany)