*** Update on the Zundel Saga ***

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Update on the Zundel Saga
by Ingrid Rimland

So far, I have received only two letters from Ernst.  I translated 
and posted portions of the first - the second one is actually more 
interesting, somewhat of a political projection treatise for America 
and the world.  However, there is just no way I can translate this 
8-page letter.  The gist of it is that the world scenario is such 
that everybody's cards are going to get re-shuffled - and soon!  It 
is a fascinating letter!

I can already feel a second "Setting the Record Straight" prison 
memoir coming on!

I should also put on the record something I have suspected for years 
and finally heard it reaffirmed - there is an arrest warrant out for 
me as well, which means that I can't go to Germany, probably not even 
to Europe. 

Poor Germany, about to be destabilized by Ingrid!  Bizarre! 

Below are excerpts from various letters to friends, who have faxed 
them to me for my archives.  As I have done before for the sake of 
readability, I have combined them by content and chronology. 
Therefore, these segments are EZ composites, written to more than one 
person, about the middle of March:

[START]

Please forgive the lateness of this letter, but I had no stamps.  A 
staff member lent me a pen, but it ran out of ink after 1 1/2 pages 
to Ingrid.  Since I did not know a soul here, I had to first make 
acquaintances - and then was able to trade some sugar for the 
rental/borrowing for a pen.  A real, full length, common-sense ball 
point pen!  Things are looking up already!

You most likely were told [of my deportation] by Canada's Chief 
Removal/Enforcement Officer, Mr. Morris, who arranged my removal via 
executive jet and accompanied me all the way to Europe.  With that 
arrangement of a "human shield" I felt safe!  I really was concerned 
about an Air India scenario.  Since these people have shown such 
vindictiveness I would put nothing past them!

[Ingrid's comment:  The Air India scenario has to do with a passenger 
plane that crashed several decades ago under highly suspicious 
circumstances due to a parcel bomb, strongly implicating involvement 
by CSIS.  I don't know the details, except what I glanced from the 
controlled Canadian media in passing.)

Mr. Morris told me that the Lindsays [Canadian lead attorneys] were 
supposed to be notified by approximately 10 a.m. as soon as we were 
airborne.  I don't know if that promise was kept or not.  My sister 
would have informed Ingrid, so poor woman - she at least knew I was 
safe!

=====

They allowed me to call Rieger, but of course it was after midnight, 
so I spoke unto his tape to let him know I had arrived.  Then I was 
briefly allowed to tell my sister, who had stayed up.  She only lives 
an hour from the airport and the prison. 

The German police made a mistake saying I arrived on the 1st of 
March.  German handcuffs closed about my wrists at 00:01, 2 March 
'05.  There were lots of police cruisers/police buses which swarmed 
around the plane and encircled it.  Photographers, TV cameras were 
everywhere.  The police thought they should apologize, because they 
could not shake the reporters.  Little did they know!  I was 
rearrested two steps away from the gangway, just like in the movies. 
It will make a great film one day.

I was accompanied by German border police, the German version of the 
FBI, the Staats-Schutz - sounds suspicious when you [use only the 
initials] -	all of these people looked at me with wide-eyed 
curiosity because of course the media had been informed and it was 
all over national TV and daily papers. 

Then I was put into a cell, no toilet, no sink, just a wooden box 
with a sloped board for a pillow.  Morning came.  Even though I slept 
on that plywood bed, the policeman gave me two blankets, which was 
nice.  I was beat, having written letters till 2 a.m. and asked my 
guards to awaken me after less than two hours to write some more and 
pack my things.  So I fell asleep quickly. 

The Canadian prison doctors had given me my blood pressure pills and 
my multivitamin.  The German [police] got me some water, and I asked 
for a piece of bread, which needed to be consumed with the pills.  No 
problem!  The most wonderfully crusty and tasty German Rye bread was 
handed to me, which I had longed for for 25 months.  I ate it in a 
police cruiser to court, slowly, like a religious celebration. 
Finally German bread again!

Within minutes, I was uncuffed and faced the judge, who had to decide 
whether to give me bail or keep me in investigative custody.  I had 
no illusions. 

=====

Since no one had told me what, if anything, I could take on board 
with me, I opted to send you some of my personal photos, drawings, 
etc., in a large envelope.  I saw [one of the prison captains] tape 
it shut before my eyes.  I had addressed it, put stamps on it, and 
asked you in a note to send it to Jurgen Rieger [German lead 
attorney] for temporary safekeeping.  As soon as I meet him, I will 
tell him what to do with it. 

I have not seen him in the two weeks I have been here because the 
Chief Prosecutors have so far refused for months to allow him to look 
at the charges and documents against me, which is customarily done in 
Germany before a person is in investigative custody - in other words, 
held without bail pending trial.  A lawyer in Germany is supposed to 
be shown these things so he can appear before the judge to argue for 
bail or the amount of bail, sureties etc.  Otherwise, we once again 
have a Canadian type secret evidence/sectret witnesses situation. 
Rieger advised the court, and me, by fax that I would not respond to 
the police, prosecutor, or judge, unless he is given some insights - 
and he strongly advised me not to talk to anyone.

I would [assume] that they are playing hardball with him, and that he 
will have to make some motion for disclosure - like in many of my 
cases.  The same old pattern rears its ugly head.  With one 
difference - any time I serve in here in investigative custody will 
be deducted from my certain-to-be-lengthy sentence.  So I am in no 
rush.

=====

					[One fax line unreadable] --- 
or Thorold and Toronto West with all its humiliations, 
inconveniences, indignities etc. - I can take this.  The only worry 
is Ingrid, because I am not allowed to make any calls while in 
investigative custody, not even to Rieger, I was told!  I can write. 
All mail has to be sent for censoring to the court, to the judge who 
decided to incarcerate me.  I have no idea how long this takes before 
you get this letter.

As you can see, I write with a real ball point pen, not a 
sawed-through pencil stub.  I have gotten so used to those German art 
pencils for my drawings that I now actually miss them.  There is one 
artist in this prison who, according to the prison newspaper, has 
made over 500 paintings!  Imagine!  I think he has been here for many 
years.  I saw several of his paintings on the institution's wall in 
the visitor area.  He is a very good artist - better than I - when it 
comes to horses, people etc. 

=====

Things are different here!  We cannot buy pre-stamped envelopes from 
the prison or color pencils, pads etc.  Here they have a real store, 
self-serve, where the prisoners buy a large variety of items, like in 
any supermarket at home.  Imagine that!

In that store one can even buy fresh eggs, grapes, lettuce, chives, 
parsley, onions.  Unfortunately there are no fridges, so things will 
wilt and spoil, but at least one can get some fresh stuff every two 
weeks - better than once in two years.  Some of the old-timers insist 
that it is a well-stocked supermarket.  I'll report to you on that in 
the future. 

=====

I am no longer locked in under three-men guard with every male and 
female guard seeing me naked while I shower behind bars.  There are 
also large clothes racks and hooks to hang our pants, underwear etc. 
like civilized people.  There were no clothes hooks "for security 
reasons" in Toronto, which meant the clothes often got moist or wet. 
In Toronto I was given a towel, and it was taken from me the moment 
the iron gate was unlocked.  Here I walk from my cell to the shower, 
not under guard, with my clothes on, with my own soap, my own 
shampoo.  There are four to five shower stalls, all gleaming white 
porcelain tiles, like in Mauthausen [one of the well-known 
concentration camps] or elsewhere - same architectural layout.  It's 
uncanny, as if I was living my trials.  I often think of the film we 
made with Fred [Leuchter] - it's all so similar. 

In Toronto I was taken to a small, 20 meter square cemented interior 
court yard, alone, outside, while two to three guards watched me from 
the inside at all times.  I was given ten minutes.  Many days, when 
it snowed, I could not go out because the snow was ankle- or 
knee-high.  I asked for a snow shovel.  In two years they could not 
organize one.  Here the loudspeaker alerts the prisoners to the 
"Hofgang" which means "yard walk".  Then the guards unlock our cell 
doors.  I still am allowed to wear my own clothes and my Tennessee 
Mountain boots and my jacket. 

=====

The judge agreed with the prosecutor that I represented a flight 
risk, even though I have no passport or credit card.  I represented 
myself and told them I would refuse to answer any questions until I 
had spoken to Rieger, since I did not know what my rights were.  They 
wanted me to sign a paper that would have transferred the right from 
the Judge to the Chief Prosecutor to determine when I could see whom, 
and he would send the police to interrogate me in prison.  Both Judge 
and Prosecutor seemed to me too insistent for me to sign it, so I 
remembered Shakespeare and the Lady protesting too much, knowing that 
these people were not exactly looking out after my best interest.  I 
firmly refused to sign that authorization.

As soon  as court was over, I was brought back, processed in, DNA 
sample taken, photographed endlessly, finger-printed, 
handball-printed - then I was allowed to take some things from my 
suitcases.  My pictures of my grandchildren and our gallery and place 
in Tennessee have vanished.  I don't know if they were confiscated or 
what, but eventually, once I have settled in, I will make inquiries. 
The staff so far have been correct, professional all of them.

That's where things rest today.  Rieger has not seen me - maybe 
because of my actions they are jerking him around, maybe he has a 
full calendar - it makes no difference to me.  I have years in prison 
ahead of me whether I see Rieger in a week, a month, or a year. 
That's one thing I have learned - don't be in a hurry in this line of 
work and this situation.

I can't call Ingrid while I am in investigative custody.  That will 
be hard on her, but to be the wife of Ernst Zundel is not easy. 
Ingrid knows this by now.  And we will overcome this, too, in due 
course.

=====
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