ZGram - June 22, 2004 - "Censorship in Finland"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

June 22, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Behold our contemporary censors at work - in Finland, of all places:

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Helsinki, January 27, 2004

Helsinki state prosecutor says Finnish introduction to book on 
Russian Revolution is criminally anti-semitic

By Heikki Hellman
Helsingen Sanomat

A BOOK on the last phases of the Russian imperial family is leading 
to charges of incitement to ethnic hatred being filed in Vantaa 
District Court. State Prosecutor Jorma Aijälä says that the 
introduction of the book defames the Jews as an ethnic group and 
libels the Jewish religion.

According to the indictment, the text constitutes both incitement 
against an ethnic group, and violation of the sanctity of religion. 
Prosecutions for either crime are quite rare in Finland.

The work is the Finnish translation of The Last Days of the Romanovs 
by Robert Wilton. It appeared in Finnish in 2000. The book is 
published in Finland by a group called Tabernaculum Dei, which 
operates in the southwest of the country. The book's translator who 
wrote the introduction to Finnish edition uses the pseudonym Jakim 
Boor.

The Ministry of Justice found that the text of the introduction was 
criminal in its content and called for charges to be filed already in 
February last year. The State Prosecutor drafted an indictment in 
late May [2004] and the issue will soon come up in Vantaa District 
Court.

The upcoming prosecution was made public on the web site of the 
publication Kirjastolehti (Library Journal), published by the Finnish 
Library Society. According to the publication, several libraries have 
already pulled the book from their shelves, or are in the process of 
doing so.

The introduction drafted for the Finnish version of Wilton's book 
claims that the Jews are a threat to other ethnic groups, and 
especially Christians. The piece also lists a number of wars, acts of 
violence, and crimes, which the Jews have supposedly committed 
throughout history. Similar material is also contained in Wilton's 
book, which was originally published in 1920. For instance, a web 
site favoured by neo-Nazis claims that the book proves that the 
Russian Revolution was, in fact, the work of Jewish Bolsheviks.

Tabernaculum Dei claims to base its activities on the theology and 
philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). The pseudonym Jakim 
Boor has been used before: in the 1940s and 1950s the name was used 
by Spain's dictator Francisco Franco for some of his writings. Robert 
Wilton, meanwhile, served as the Russian correspondent of the British 
newspaper The Times from 1902 to 1919. In addition to his book on the 
last days of the Romanovs, he wrote another one entitled Russia's 
Agony (1918). Both have been published in several languages.

Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the edition of 1,000 copies has 
been fully sold out, or distributed. The publisher has sent copies to 
all Members of Parliament, for instance.

The book has been distributed both through book stores, and through 
companies dealing with the distribution of books to public libraries. 
The Finnish translator of the book is also known to have personally 
marketed the book to libraries.

No copies of the book were to be found in Helsinki's two main 
bookstores, the Akateeminen kirjakauppa and Suomalainen kirjakauppa 
on Friday, but it can be ordered through both bookstores.

Libraries in Espoo took the book off their shelves in December, 
following negative feedback from customers. In Vantaa the two copies 
held by the city's library network have not been available since the 
autumn of 2000.

The book has never been acquired by Helsinki's libraries, but it can 
be found in many of Finland's provincial libraries; last week it was 
still available in most of them.

"We are surprised that the work has been available at libraries at 
all", says Dan Kantor, a spokesman for Helsinki's Jewish Congregation.

His congregation originally filed a complaint to the ministry of 
justice over the book. "Many libraries heard of it at that stage, and 
we understood that the book was being removed from the shelves."

According to the Ministry of Education, it is up to individual 
municipalities to decide what measures to take with respect to the 
book. This past week provincial governments have informed libraries 
on the issue and reminded them that distributing the book could be a 
crime.

The Last Days of the Romanovs is available from Noontide Press for $6.95.


(Source: http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/04/06/Romanovs_Jews.html )

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