The Zundelsite - How Ingrid's ad came about

June 23, 2003

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!

Here comes my report about the Washington Times ad that hit the newsstands yesterday. That ad is going to be the buzz of Washington, D.C. today in many a place we could never have otherwise reached.

I just had a report from my volunteer webmaster that since the ad appeared, we have had 33,557 hits - and this despite a Washington Times misspelling of the URL that gave the zundelsite as sundelsite!

(On purpose? Naw! Couldn't be!)

Actually, a similar idea started way, way back - long before Ernst was arrested. It has been percolating to the surface ever since.

When Ernst and I moved to the hills of Tennessee, we did so with the understanding and resolve that we would rethink our struggle and our mission and see where we could apply our energy and limited resources best. We were dealing with some rather imponderable difficulties as well as exciting challenges we had to reckon with and figure out how they could be managed. What we wanted to do, plain and simple, was to spread more of the Truth to more places and people, but in a different, more exciting way.

One of the "imponderables" was the state of Revisionism itself. A lot of hard work had gone into the excavation and forensic exposure of the Holocaust Lie - but all the skeletons in the closets of our enemies had been unburied in painstaking, scientific work of some two decades, and there was nothing more to uncover or dig out. We had the evidence. We knew the Holocaust, as peddled by our enemies, was fraudulent. How often do you re-excavate a site to find out what lies buried? How often would we run like idiots and frantically start digging all over again the moment some obscure "Holocaust Survivor" shrieked "prove that it didn't happen!"? Why didn't we stop running, dig in our heels, give them the Zundel Laser Stare, and say: "YOU prove it! It's up to YOU to prove it. YOU prove it, once and for all! Or else, shut up! We've had it!"

The task at hand was two-fold: Legitimizing Revisionism,getting rid of the stigma - and stop being on the defensive. We knew the truth would be far more seductive than the lie - at least for our kin.

We badly wanted to move on. Ernst longed to paint, to plant his potatoes, to live a normal life, to get to know our new relationship and our neighbors - and to think, think, and think! He knew the hard, forensic struggle had been won - what we were facing were barriers that had to do with stigma, unjust stigma, much of which was fraudulently peddled as well. For my part, I was tired of my ZGrams that drained away a lot of time - and, frankly, I was tired of the Zundelsite because I felt it had outlived its usefulness. There were now better, more focused Revisionist websites availalable than mine - for instance, www.vho.org, www.ihr.org, and others. - All the information was available, out on the Internet, with or without me. I had done my part launching it in cyberspace, but now I longed for something else. I had started working on a screenplay and wanted more time for myself.

Additionally, I was dreaming of re-vamping my website, making it more relevant to what I considered Stage Two: Building cohesion among our wildly scattered groups, attracting more creative people, calling for a moratorium on the disgusting sniping at each other by folks who should be comrades, giving back pride to our guilt-ridden youngsters who walk bent because of what their forebears never did but were accused of having done for clearly self-serving, geopolitical reasons.

Thirdly, Europe was stirring - particularly Germany. In many ways, the partly reunited Germany had all the earmarks of East Germany before the Wall came crashing down: A lot of undertow. I mean - a lot! Atop perched still a very jittery elite - with "bad conscience" clearly written on their foreheads because they were beholden to elements who did not have Germany's welfare and autonomy in mind.

This was not visible so much in Germany itself as one could see reflected in the German-language foreign media that ran a lot of formula articles that had the cookie-cutter look:

Opening paragraph: Of course we are guilty as hell. Shame on our forefathers! Shame! Body of article: Durnit those wicked Revisionists! All of them closeted Nazis! You know what they claim? They claim this and that and the other. Shame on those folks. Shame! Shame! More shame! Closing remark: Off to the woodshed we go! Where are the nearest Wiesenthalers?

You didn't hear them snicker, did you? All the revisionist info was there, right in the body of the article. Discerning folks learned long ago how to read between the lines. We all knew why those brackets of political correctness were there - the politically correct opening paragraphs, the politically correct conclusion - they HAD to be there, for protection. You see the same tactic on websites - not merely dissident websites.

They'll give you all the info, but the fig leaf is in place. When I chide them, they say: "Please! Patience! One front at a time!"

Fourth, there was Russia - and Putin. He is a mysterious political leader. We didn't know of anybody who really managed to do a concise, convincing reading on Putin's personality and political goals. But we knew he speaks a fluent German, and what political chess moves he made looked interesting and promising to people on the Right. Also - and this is not always clearly spelled out in the West: Russia adores talented writers, particularly novelists who understand how to embed important messages artistically. I felt that I had some useful coin in having written about a painful time in Russian/German history.

That, in a nutshell, was the frame of reference against which Ernst and I discussed many times what we could do to take into account these independent variables and make them work for us to bring History in Accord with the Facts in a carefully planned, attractive but socially responsible cultural offensive. I mean, let's face it - state-of-the-art Revisionism is a bit stuffy. Who can get excited about a less-than-airtight door?

I was actually dreaming about a publicized trip to Russia and perhaps manage to get myself invited to the Kremlin. For me, it would have brought a circle to a close.

Then Ernst was arrested, and the arrest changed everything! My husband was under such brutal surveillance that, sometimes, after he finished talking to me on the telephone, with two guards standing at his elbow and listening to every word, he was frisked as if he had caught something forbidden. Maybe another politically incorrect thought that would start sprouting in the still fertile Zundel mind? Horrors!

What was I to do - under the circumstances? I didn't have any physical sorties - and wouldn't have known how to use them to blast away the Lie. I had only our thoughts that Ernst and I used to bounce off of each other. And, therefore, I said to myself: I need a thought sortie! Of the right kind. Of the most effective kind! One that will hit where it counts most - in every politically correct corridor of power!

That's when I started thinking of an ad.

To make it work full force, I needed a national paper.

At first, I had the Globe and Mail in mind, the only Canadian paper I thought might give me a chance and let me place an advertisement. However, a full page ad cost a hefty Can$ 53,000.00 - about $40,000.00 in American dollars. I did not have that kind of money, but Ernst and I had friends, and I thought we could get it together.

Well, PayPal pulled the plug on my pledge after I collected a little more than $9,000.00.

My next choice was the Washington Times. This paper has a circulation of 250,000 - to a respectable target readership!

I contacted them and told them what I had in mind. Would they have trouble with that kind of an ad? It was political, I said, and it was controversial.

No problem, I was told.

A full page ad would cost almost $12,000.00 for a prime placement. A lot of money - but then, the pledges were close to the mark. I couldn't quite believe my luck, but I started refining my message. I felt that with the help of my internet friends, my plan was definitely affordable.

Next, I was told the ad was off!

There was a policy in place, I was informed, permitting them to refuse any ad they did not think appropriate. No other explanation could be given. Sorry!

"Too bad!" I told myself and a few others whom I had taken into confidence about my plans. On to another front!

The next day, a surprise, and totally without my doing: The ad was on again! After all, this was America. Free speech still reigned. The Washington Times would run it - in their metropolitan daily, on Thursday, full page.

At that point, I realized something I had not known before: There were two versions of the Washington Times - a daily, distributed in Washington, D.C., and a weekly condensation, distributed nationally. Which one did I prefer?

It seemed to me a national version was more to my advantage because for the same kind of money, I could even get a double spread. So I said: "Let's go with the national version. I'm thinking Centerfold!"

Fat chance! THEY turned me down!

Back to the Washington version - with a very queasy stomach! And lo and behold, they were still willing. By then, it was Thursday, and the ad was to run in the Sunday edition. They would even design it for me.

Let's just put it this way: I had my own ideas about how the ad should look, which conflicted with the ad staff's ideas who chose the most atrocious fonts and otherwise messed with my concepts. The hair was bristling in my neck. The clock was ticking. Deadline was Friday noon.

I gently protested. They had botched up my ad! i couldn't approve it that way!

I got them to work past the deadline. It was knots in my stomach all the way - and the end result is not quite what I had in mind, but very nearly so - Eureka! My ad appeared in all its glory yesterday!

That it appeared while the Barnes Review Conference was still in session is sheer coincidence. Willis Carto read it to the conference attendees. It got a strong applause!

Now back to Mr. Putin. It is true that I wanted, and still want, to reach him - but what were my chances? Before the ad was even firmed up, I faxed the Embassy of the Russian Federation and simply asked: How would I go about delivering a personal message to the President of Russia? I couldn't just ring the bell, could I?

A very courteous gentleman with the thickest Russian accent called me back. Why not? Just come on over. Or else, just send it Priority Post.

Which is what I did. My three novels about the tragic story of the Russians and the Germans caught in the cauldron of the Hidden Hand pulling the strings behind the scenes went out with a brief cover letter, to be delivered before noon today. On one of its covers, it sports the Czarist Crest.

I can't imagine that it won't have an impact.

And now I'll lean back and just wait.

Will President Putin reply to our liking? Will he reply at all? I must tell you honestly that I don't know. My heart tells me, yes - but my mind tells me, no! It will depend on how beholden this mysterious leader of that vast country is to our enemies and their own power base. It will depend on who will come running, wringing hands in distress, warning him not to reply - or else! What power our enemies, and theirs, wield over Russia still, I do not know. I don't know what gestures President Putin can afford, even if he might be favorably inclined.

But here is what's going to happen:

Somebody will tell him about the ad, about our request, about Ernst Zundel, a Western Refusenik, now languishing in a Canadian jail cell thanks to the underhanded, sly shenanigans at ministerial levels of three important Western countries - Germany, Canada and the United States.

That is a powerful and politically extremely useful message - not just for Russia and Germany. That message crosses not just borders but ideologies. It may well bring together people from all walks of life who might be willing to declare a moratorium about the differences between their aims and ours and link arms for the sake of Freedom of Speech. I feel I do not have to go to Russia with tears in my eyes and beg the President of Russia to pry my husband from the clutches of his kidnappers who claim with a straight face they run "democracies".

There's going to be a lot of influential diplomats in many embassies in Washington, DC., who will prick up their ears about this strange incarceration and brutal treatment of a Western dissident who isn't guilty of a thing else except a wish to make his independent thoughts about forbidden subjects available to others.

"What is it," they will ask, "about this so-called 'Holocaust' that freaks out certain people? Why put him in prison if he hasn't done anything bad. Could it be Ernst Zundel is right?"

All I can say, at this point, is that the rock has been thrown in the pond, and there are going to be quite a few far-reaching ripples. There will be many spin-off articles. There will be discussions in highest echelons of many governments. There will be syndicated columnists who are going to pick up this topic who wouldn't have dreamed of doing it before. There might even be serious retaliation against me. I am well aware of the danger. But somebody has got to speak out.

That's what I did - I spoke out. The outcome is still written in the stars.

Ingrid

Thought for the Day:

"Germany has the most repressive laws in Europe to enforce the state religion of German guilt for the Holocaust."

-Doug Christie, The Toronto Star, June 22