The Germans have a fitting word - "Wehrzersetzung" - the systematic and sneaky corroding of the will of the fighting forces from within one's own ranks that has plagued our struggle for some time. I feel a blistering ZGram coming on on that topic, but since I just received the prettiest bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day, there is honey in my veins, I am not going to spoil my happiness.
Some other day, perhaps.
But I thought I would give you a taste for what it feels like to be undermined by underhanded attacks - in other words, by "friendly fire" - in the midst of a gigantic struggle. This is an excerpt from Mr. Zundel's May Power letter that has just gone out to Zundelhaus supporters near and far:
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Why fight court cases?
This is an increasingly-asked question of me. I have answered that question before. Lately, however, the criticism has been coupled with charges that people who fight court cases - Zundel, Walendy, Deckert, Irving, Dr. Faurisson, Fred Leuchter and all the other Revisionists who have been charged, dragged into court, tried, convicted, heavily fined and jailed - somehow do that for no better reason than to drain their supporters' finances needlessly.
Recently the little publication, Mythbusters, which I enjoy reading, had a rather virulent and unfair article in this vein. While I certainly concur with some of the truisms in that article, like the classic statement "If you expect to find justice in a court house you may as well expect to find love in a whorehouse" - or words to that effect - I wish things were that simple!
My question to these critics is: What have they done lately that is more effective? Is it not better to fight this war in court - than have the blood run in the streets because of pent-up frustration and hatred? The courts are our battlefields. We have no choice but to be there.
I have been victimized by endless legal proceedings, mainly for things I merely published, reprinted what others had written, for over two decades. Let's look at what would have happened to me - and to Revisionism - if I had not fought in my initial Canadian Postal Tribunal hearing - the longest, most expensive one in all of Canadian history - where my Zionist opponents had found the ear of the government of Canada in the person of the minister in charge of Canada Post and supplied even the expert witnesses.
I was summarily banned from receiving or sending out any mail whatsoever. As a mail order publishing house, this meant the ruination of a business which I had built up - by working long, hard hours, for decades, into a profit-making, free-enterprise based little company that reached people in 42 countries. Overnight, by government decree, this effort was to be destroyed - unless I appealed to a Government appointed Tribunal against the unlimited power and financial resources of the state, the very same Government of Canada. I was keenly aware of the disproportionate amount of resources on my part compared to theirs, and my less than David-against-Goliath chances and role in such a legal fight.
Believe me, I looked at all the options I had! I was a well-known and much sought-after graphic artist, photo retoucher, painter. I had been fiscally responsible and conservative and had put some money into a few mutual funds, and I could have walked away without a fight.
I discussed my situation with my sons, my friends, advisors and supporters. Many thought that my situation was hopeless, for along with the Postal Ban, huge Jewish demonstrations were organized in front of my house in Toronto on 31 May 1981, which brought 2000 screaming Zionists, agitated by the militant, violent, terrorist Jewish Defence League, to my doorsteps. These hoodlums were trying to storm my building. They organized around-the-clock demonstrations outside my premises for weeks afterward, scaring away supporters and preventing graphic arts customers from coming into my studio. And all this was preceded by the largest police raids in German history - bar none! From Denmark to Switzerland, from France to Austria, almost 2,000 Zündel supporters were raided by German police. Truckloads of Samisdat books, booklets, audio tapes and videotapes were seized from my German supporters. My bank accounts in Germany, where customers and donors sent money, were seized by the German State. With this move, I lost one of my most important sources of income for my operation.
The German government suspended my passport and did not renew it. We call all that in German "Hiobsbotschaften" - the trials and tribulations of the biblical Job seemed to have befallen me and my life. It felt as though a bunch of biblical curses were upon me. I felt cornered, betrayed, outfoxed, outgunned, besieged - and, yes, I was scared!
I thought to myself: "You have battled these evil forces for twenty years, and it has come to this!" I told myself: "No one will blame you if you pull back, lick your wounds, go up North and paint. Do what your heart ached to do all your life! Create beauty! Watch the sun rise! Smell the fragrance of fresh air! Sniff the roses - and leave a legacy of beauty for the world."
I even bought myself some catalogs of prefabricated houses - summer homes, actually - and took some drives into Ontario's vacation country, a land of picturesque forests, Robinson-Crusoe-like islands and thousands of crystal clear lakes.
Brother, was it tempting! Was it ever tempting! I had enough money to do it, since I had invested in some stocks and lived frugally.
And then, that quiet little voice which dwells deep within most of us kept whispering at first into my consciousness: "You must not give up. You cannot surrender without a fight. It is one thing to be defeated by overwhelming force; there is no shame in that. It is another altogether to check out without a fight." The whisper turned into a firm voice - and instead of fulfilling my lifelong dream I longed for so intensely, I chose to follow the dictum of my soul.
What followed was like magic. Bitter magic, to be sure - but I was like a transformed person. I grabbed my pen, my calculator. I figured out how long I could survive without having a steady income. The figures gave me a reality check. However, I was Ernst. I grabbed the phone, since I could no longer send any letters - my only remaining way of communicating. (This was before fax machines and e-mail.) I called my friends far and wide - continents apart, from South Africa to Argentina, from Spain to Sweden. The consensus was that they would stand by me - and send money by inter-bank transfers. They would find a way, they all promised.
This newsletter is too limited in space to tell the whole story - besides, I have told it many, many times before. Let it suffice to say: I went on fierce counter-attacks. On every single front! I fought first against the Ministry of Post, and prepared for these postal Tribunal Hearings in depth, which took the opposition completely by surprise. I put them on trial in effect.
The strategy succeeded. Within weeks, I won a partial lifting of the ban, which saved my graphic art studio at least for a few years. In a little more than a year I was totally victorious - all my mail privileges were restored. No apology, no compensation from the government, however, to this day!
I sued the West German government up through the legal system - and lost round after round. In the end, I won total victory! It took six years to get my passport back, but to this day the powers-that-be know they will have to reckon with me.
Parallel to that action, I sued the German Post Office and government, and within two years won all my money back and had the account re-opened, being cleared in the process of the charge of having published "hate literature."
Now it was my enemies who were reeling from my counter-attacks. They were now being demonstrated against by me and my friends. I had succeeded in turning the tables on them.
That's when the first bomb blew up parts of my house! A few months later I was criminally charged by the government for publishing "false news" by putting out the publication "Did Six Million Really Die?"
I was told again by some lawyers, even well known lawyers, that I should give up, that I could not possibly win this one. Well, fight I did, in the courts. I lost one round, won on appeal, was charged, lost again, was jailed, deported from Canada in an 11-minute Kangaroo tribunal, appealed it - and won a year later!
I lost my second trial. I lost the appeal of the second trial. Again, I was jailed, released, jailed again, released again. I battled. I fought them all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In the meantime, I was arrested while on a trip to Germany, jailed there briefly, tried, convicted in absentia, appealed the disgusting verdict, lost the appeal - and am now before the European Human Rights court, waiting endlessly to have that case be heard.
My friends know that I won my case in Canada ultimately in the Supreme Court in 1992. All along, I informed a world thirsting for Truth in History! I put the Holocaust on Trial and ripped the mask of hypocrisy off of the Holocaust Lobby's face. What was shown to the world were liars, con men, crooks, extortionists who used the goodwill engendered by their propaganda to fleece the unsuspecting and cowed people of the world - mainly the government of Germany - of untold billions of dollars.
I gave the world the first forensic examination of most of the big, so-called "death camps." This had never been done before! Most likely, it would never have been done, had I not decided to fight in the courts.
To my critics who say I "wasted" the movement's money in court cases, I simply say this: Where is their Leuchter Report? What "movement" are they talking about? The people who have helped me did so voluntarily. There never was a membership fee.
My critics are largely disgruntled, failed newsletter writers who could not find a large enough echo of their own voices within the so-called "movement". They failed largely because they were hateful, often crude, sometimes vulgar, vindictive, bitter, and so far disconnected from what Aryan people are really like that they could not have succeeded, for they were perceived by those who received their material as wild men, weirdoes, kooks, religious zealots or outright bigots - and dangerous to the people who associated with them. Many of them were, and are, mentally and emotionally unstable, some even mentally crippled to boot and unfit to lead anything. How could they have possibly succeeded - and in what? - even if they had been given the money that was sent in good faith to me?
I make no apologies to either friend or foe. I did what had to be done. My errors? The ones I made were honest errors - some made under duress, panic and fatigue. Show me the person not guilty of those errors who has fought as hard as I have.
I am in agreement - in total agreement - with all those who wish these court cases would go away. Well, they won't. Until such time when better opportunities and alternatives are available to me, I will keep on fighting in court - hating and resenting every minute and every dollar I have to devote to them. But fight I will - with gritted teeth! I don't think this situation will last forever, but I do want you to know what is on my Canadian court calendar in the immediate months ahead:
(snipped)
In these cases, I am fighting single-handedly against a plethora of Jewish special interest groups determined to make sure that I am declared a "hate monger" by a biased Tribunal, before I can ask the courts for any remedy. These Jewish groups have worked for years for some sort of tribunal or court decision finding me a "hate monger" - and they can now almost taste this victory. But I am determined to fight on and to win.
I am fighting for the basic principles of any decent society - the right to be tried by an impartial and independent court, the right to bring forward evidence to prove truth, the right not to be prosecuted under a statute which does not even apply to the facts I have been accused of, and the right not to be banned from the Canadian Parliament Buildings, merely because of my views on history. This struggle will define not only the rights of Canadians, but the rights of all people who seek to bring truth to the history of the last century.
In closing, let me say this, my friends: Our enemies are vulnerable! Never have there been so many inroads on so many hitherto impenetrable fronts!
Some of you have been helping me with your donations, large and small, for four decades! That is approaching half a century! And never have I been more hopeful than in the last few years, for many different reasons, that we will defeat the forces of this evil coalition against our culture and civilization. They are now at war with the entire planet, and the struggle is no longer ours alone. Whatever might happen to us as individuals in this struggle is transitory.
This past week, one of my helpers, an elderly Latvian, was felled by a stroke - and within days died of a heart attack. He used to come into my shop with another friend, a German WWII veteran, early in the morning to report for voluntary duty, to fold booklets, to make endless thousands of copies, day in and day out. Those two would sometimes shyly hand me an envelope. In it would be a $10 or a $20 banknote, and I would joke with them and say: "This is the only place on earth where people come to work and pay the boss to work!" We would have a hearty laugh and hunker down to more.
That's the way it has been in our struggle - little, gentle touches of so many little, gentle people!
I feel I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams that their lives acquired meaning because my struggle gave them meaning. We are truly fighting this war with help from this world and the next! Whenever things seemed almost hopeless, and financially we were at the edge, someone would send in unexpectedly an extra amount, or a lawyer would send in an amount left as part of a little old lady's will. Sometimes such help came from people in far-off countries - people whom I did not even know - and once again a lawyer's bill could be paid, or a few thousand stamps could be bought. So much love, so much kindness and, yes, even admiration have come my way because of my work, and so many people have told me that I am in their daily prayers that I simply know: Our work is truly blessed! Doug Christie, Barbara Kulaszka, my able legal team, Ingrid Rimland, the gifted writer, my video and computer people - ultimately all of us are really only tools to accomplish that for which God has to use men and women.
I thank you for your continued support! We are far from being defeated and are working on new projects, new moves, new initiatives. A German writer years ago sent me an illustration of a pair of hands breaking the rope that bound them, saying: "Ernst Zündel: Er sprengt die Fesseln!" I know I am breaking the bondage.
I thank you as always,
Ernst Zündel
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Thought for the Day:
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
(Abraham Lincoln)