The text for today's Zgram can be found at http://www.newsday.com/ap/international/ap819.htm
Its title is: "Web Site Must Stop Holocaust Denial" and it was written by MIKE CORDER, an Associated Press Writer.
Let me preface this story with a little background first:
Dr. Fredrick Toben, a German-born Australian, went to Germany on holidays about a year ago to find out what he could or could not discuss in the country of his birth regarding matters pertaining to the Holocaust. Toben is the owner of the Adelaide Institute Website - a revisionist website long a big, fat thorn in the eyes of the Australian Jewish community.
When Dr. Toben came to Germany, he took himself straight to the offices of Hans Heiko Klein, Germany's Torquemada-like prosecutor of Revisionists, for a little private conversation on the topic that was burning on his heart. I am not sure what transpired during the first visit, but he was politely invited back to Herr Klein's office to continue to discuss his concern the next day.
When he returned, there sat a gentleman in civilian clothes, listening in to the discussion, which didn't take long. It turned out that the not-so mysterious man was a policeman, ready to arrest Dr. Toben the moment he uttered what is in Germany a 'crime" - doubt about the so-called Holocaust. It can land such a Holocaust skeptic for up to five years in prison.
The entire story can be found on the Adelaide Institute website.
To make a long story short, Dr. Toben spent 10 months in prison for what he considers entrapment. After all, he wasn't "denying" anything in the open - in a public forum or marketplace. He wasn't inciting the public to hate Holocaust survivors. He wasn't "disparaging the memory of the dead" - another "crime" in Germany. He simply wanted to know where the parameters of Holocaust denial were.
Today came word that the Toben Saga continues - and it will be highly instructive to watch how Australia will take to the prospect of its first "Holocaust Denier" marching to jail for his honestly held beliefs about recent history as articulated on his website.
Herewith the slightly shortened AP release by Mike Corder:
Corder:
A government-funded commission ordered a Web site in Australia on Tuesday to stop publishing material questioning whether the Holocaust occurred. A prominent Jewish group welcomed the decision, but the site's owner said he would defy it.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission outlawed the material and ordered Frederick Toben to remove it from the Web site of a private group called the Adelaide Institute. Toben is the institute's director.
The ruling marked the first time the commission ordered material removed from the Net.
Zundelsite:
It will be interesting to see how the Australian media - and Australian society generally - will react to this. Fredrick Toben is a tough customer under a genteel surface. Once again the Holocaust Promoters picked on the wrong guy!
Corder:
Although the commission has no enforcement powers, if Toben refuses to comply he could be prosecuted and jailed for contempt.
Zundelsite:
A situation exactly like in Canada - where a "commission has (ostensibly!) no enforcement powers" - yet can land a man in prison for "thought crimes".
Corder:
In its ruling, the commission branded as ''bullying, insulting and offensive'' claims on the Web site that the Holocaust amounted to nothing more than allegations and assertions by Jews.
Zundelsite:
Norman Finkelstein and even Raul Hilberg, both prominent Jews, have come much to the same conclusion. Next you will hear from Australia that Finkelstein's site is censored Down Under?
Corder:
Millions of Jews died in Nazi death camps during World War II.
Zundelsite:
No! Millions did not "die in Nazi death camps"! That is exactly part of the bone of contention - the inflated numbers and the insinuation that there was state-sponsored genocide involved.
Corder:
The Adelaide Institute claims to examine ''the truth about historical events, especially those connected with World War II and the Holocaust.'' Its Web site questions if there ever were gas chambers at Auschwitz, one of the main Nazi camps.
Zundelsite:
Good! Spread the word! Criticism is healthy, and tens of thousands will find their way to Toben's website. That's how Revisionism conquers!
Corder:
Kathleen McEvoy, the head of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, ordered the institute to remove the material on grounds that its main purpose was to humiliate and denigrate Jewish people.
Zundelsite:
The President of Switzerland and the German negotiators in the latest shakedown thought they were being bullied by Jewish lawyers and Jewish organizations in their endless quest for unsubstantiated reparations.
Corder:
''In public discourse there is a need to balance rights and responsibilities,'' she said. ''It is never appropriate to victimize people of a certain race in the name of freedom of speech.''
Zundelsite:
One wonders when Jewish writers, commentators and movie producers are going to stop victimizing German people with brazenly invented stories - including the German-born Dr. Toben.
Corder:
Toben was also ordered to apologize to Australia's Jewish community.
Zundelsite:
When will Jews apologize for their mistreatment of Germans in non-fiction books, novels, film and television for the last 40 years?
When will the Israelis apologize for the murder and torture of Palestinians in their own country?
Dr. Toben is merely "guilty" of an independent mind!
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Thought for the Day:
"When will the liberal media stop treating left-wing ideology as a proxy for intelligence?"
(Sent to the Zundelsite)
Back to Table of Contents of the Oct. 2000 ZGrams