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May 1, 2005
Ernst Zundel is a controversial figure who has questioned the
official story of the Holocaust for years. Why is that a crime?
By Matt Hutaff Mar 8, 2005
I
disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say
it.
– "The Friends of Voltaire," 1906.
 Last
Tuesday Canadian authorities quietly
shipped Ernst Zundel to Mannheim, Germany under cloak of night. Once his
flight landed, Zundel was placed under arrest and taken into custody to
stand trial for hate crime charges that were filed on behalf of the German
people in 2003.
Indeed, aside from this flight, Zundel has only briefly seen the
outside of a prison cell since his abduction from his home in Tennessee by
U.S. agents and subsequent deportation to Canada. His exile to Germany is
the culmination of a two-year "Star Chamber"-style legal
proceeding in which Zundel was unable to question witnesses, examine
available evidence or even know precisely what he was being charged with.
The court's ruling, however, was inevitable – Ernst Zundel presented a
grave risk to national and international security, and he had to go. The quicker
the better.
What precisely has Zundel done that's incurred the wrath of three
powerful nations? He's questioned the accepted views of the Holocaust. Does
he accept that the Nazis exterminated millions? Absolutely. Does he
acknowledge Jewish persecution during the second World War? Yes. Does he
agree with the official position on casualties and methods? No – and he
wants a dialogue with anyone who will listen.
And therein lies the problem. In Germany (and many other nations),
questioning the Holocaust is a crime. Ernst Zundel is being persecuted
for a belief. Anyone besides me feel that's wrong?
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It does not matter to me if Ernst Zundel is right or wrong. His
contrary investigations into the machinations of Nazi atrocity are
interesting, but ultimately unimportant.
What is important is the
freedom to believe or say whatever one wants. There are those that insist
world oil reserves are on a permanent and steady decline;
still others are convinced aliens walk among us.
If they're right, God bless 'em; if they're wrong, the only thing they're
guilty of is being wrong (please note that I have no opinion on peak oil or
UFOs). Neither outcome should be a crime – how can someone be legally
responsible for an incorrect belief?
That
is what puzzles me. Anyone should have the ability to debate the merits of
whatever case he or she chooses without fear of government reprisal. In
supposed democratic states like Germany and Canada, the very idea of free
speech is a fundamental part of daily life – no topic should be off-limits
to public discourse. It certainly doesn't stop the debater from believing in
his cause and it clamps down on thought at the same time. Oftentimes, it
makes people question why the topic was so risqué in the first place,
creating new converts to a forbidden dialogue.
"Truth needs no laws to support it," says Mike Rivero.
"Throughout history, only lies and liars have resorted to the courts to
enforce adherence to dogma."
So if Ernst Zundel is wrong – and most of the world agrees with
that assessment – what better way to expose Zundel as a fool than by
letting himself hang on his own words? Why seek to prosecute someone for
believing something few people want or care to hear?
Until his persecution by the Canadian
courts, I had never heard about Ernst Zundel despite his decades-long
attack on Holocaust dogma. He's been put on trial twice before for the same
"crime," and his list of enemies is long. By continuing to
harangue a marginal player in revisionist history, those who seek to condemn
him have only shone the spotlight on his research... and the fervor of
vested interests trying to impose a singular view of the Holocaust upon the
world.
Like Zundel, I believe that the topic of the Holocaust should be
openly and freely discussed and debated. I personally feel that how it is remembered
today does a great disservice to the millions of other people who
perished in World War II. The death toll was staggering – why nitpick over
which culture was impacted the most (not much of a debate when you consider the
Roma were effectively obliterated)? Anybody that wants to disregard or
debate that stance should be free to do so.
Except they're not. Travel to countries with laws prohibiting
dissenting opinions on the Holocaust and you can be jailed right alongside
Zundel. Most startling is that Zundel is being prosecuted because his website
has the potential to reach German citizens. Does it frighten writers that
their text, written and stored in an entirely different country online, can
be used against them in a foreign court? It should.
It's a sad state of affairs that Germany is now required to try one
of its own citizens for daring to think differently – the same kind of
ridiculous legal theatrics that would be at home in the Third Reich.
There are those who would protect their interests in maintaining
the Holocaust image as-is. Are they opportunists? Perhaps. Are they truly
interested in examining Nazi atrocity if they quell alternative viewpoints?
No. Who maintains the legacy better – those who seek to learn all they can
or those who bury viewpoints under layers of dogma?
In 1633 the revered scientist Galileo was brought before the Roman
Catholic Church and charged with heresy for his conviction in a heliocentric
solar system. His belief shook the very foundations religion and science;
his reward for accepting long-denied truth was the promise of torture unless
he recanted... and a lifetime of house arrest.
Right or wrong, Galileo's beliefs deserved greater scrutiny than
the threat of an iron maiden. The research of Ernst Zundel and others
of the Holocaust shouldn't end in a 17th-century Inquisition. It should be
evaluated openly, regardless of the outcome.
History is supposed to ruffle feathers. Chaining up a man
illegally, having him deported based on the word of a biased judge and
subjecting him to a trial that has no basis in a truly free and open society
doesn't help the Holocaust... it only helps others think there's something
to hide.
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Setting the Record Straight: Letters from Cell # 7
$10 - 180 Pages
Find out who this "premier thought criminal" really is -
how he thinks, how he writes, what he's really saying! You will
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Reminder:
Help free Ernst Zundel, Prisoner of Conscience. His
prison sketches - now on-line and highly popular - help pay for his defence.
Take a look - and tell a friend.
http://www.zundelsite.org/gallery/donations/index.html
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Please write to Ernst Zündel, let him know that he is not
alone:
Ernst Zundel
JVA Mannheim
Justiz-Vollzugsanstalt
Herzogenried Strasse 111
D 68169 Mannheim
Germany
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