So let's put the cyber gossips to rest. Without further ado, I bring you now what some people think is of the biggest bomb shells in Revisionist circles - and even more of an earthquake in our opponents' camp. :)
I am quoting an excerpt from the February Zündel Power Letter to his supporters:
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Some of you have suspected it for some time, a very few have known from personal conversations or letters from me, that I have lived in the United States of America for some time. I am married to Ingrid Rimland and have been since early last year. We kept it confidential because we did not want my enemies with their hateful shenanigans to throw monkey wrenches into our first year together and aggravate an already difficult situation with my still on-going Human Rights Tribunal trial in Canada.
I thought I could keep my company, Samisdat Publishers, Ltd., operating in Canada, for many people run companies in Canada and the US while moving back and forth across the border. Ordinarily that does not represent a problem, but when your name is Ernst Zündel, things are not 'ordinary', as one might suspect.
For more than a year, Ingrid and I flew back and forth. We drove long distances and visited our respective children and grandchildren, and got to know one another, made plans, traveled together to many places and intensified not only our personal relationship but also our working relationship.
We knew that we had many common interests and found that we were careful of one another's feelings and space, personality traits and quirks. Ingrid thinks I am a little too deeply fascinated with alternative medicine and health foods, vitamins and mineral supplements etc. She found a word for that in German - 'ein Fimmel' - which means, roughly translated, 'having a bit of an oddball obsession'. Already I have acquired a new nickname - 'Fimmelmensch'!
Every once in a while, when we meet someone and I invariably launch into my favorite topic - like a heat-seeking missile, she claims! - I see her eyes glaze over and know it is time to move on to another topic. She also knows I have an altogether undeserved reputation for being a bit untidy, keeping piles and piles of paper gathering dust, and good-naturedly she has been patient with me most of the time. When all else fails, I fall back on the well-known excuse that while I may have a messy desk, I claim an orderly mind. She looks doubtful and I try to clean up - just a little.
I found Ingrid to be talented not only in her exquisite writing but also a good housekeeper in traditional Mennonite fashion, and we often chuckle when the centuries' old genetic imprinting comes to the fore and we go through the one-two-three checklist before visitors come: 'Ach Gott, my nails! My hair! Ernst, you can't meet important people in torn blue jeans and hiking boots... - and then I find myself sitting there for hours in my starched, buttoned-up shirt until one of our intellectual-warrior-visitors arrives, all dressed - I kid you not! - in old hand-me-down clothes and barefoot!
Recently, Ingrid and I were in Cleveland, Ohio together, where we were guests in a wealthy man's home - a one-time poor immigrant refugee who made good in America. He is married to a stunningly aristocratic Swedish lady who runs an impeccable household. He said smilingly, when we told him in confidence that Ingrid and I were married: 'Yes, we marry for love, and from then on it's one constant compromise.' He must be a good compromiser, for he is approaching his 50th wedding anniversary!
I will bring you more news in the future about our life together as time permits and circumstances dictate. You can be sure that my detractors, who found out officially on February 22 that we were married and that I had left Canada quite some time ago, will create as much trouble for us as they can.
We will fight these battles as a team, for two are stronger than one.
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Thought for the Day:
"Your life will be rich for others only as it is rich for you."
(David McCord)