On the New Jersey meeting

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

To the subscribers of my former Zgram list:

I was on a week-long trip to the East coast and only returned late 
yesterday.  I am sorry that a great many of the e-mail missives sent 
to me bounced because my mail box was full.

I need to clarify something that seems to cause a great deal of 
misunderstanding:

Some months ago, I received an invitation to speak to a small group 
belonging to the National Alliance in New Jersey.  I am not a member 
of the National Alliance and am not even on their mailing list.  I 
know very little about them.  However, since various members of the 
National Alliance had voluntarily and responsibly participated in the 
nationwide Zundel demonstrations before Canadian Consulates in 
several states a few months ago, and since this New Jersey meeting 
happened to be in a location where I was passing by anyway, I wanted 
to show my appreciation and accepted the invitation for what I 
believed was a local chapter of the National Alliance.  

Only 30 minutes before I spoke, I found out that the National 
Alliance had broken up into two groups, and that the audience I was 
to address now called itself the National Vanguard.

I know very little about the internal conflicts between these two 
groups, and I do not wish to get involved in the acrimony that exists 
- or somehow get in the middle.  I casually know a handful of people 
in either group with whom I have had cordial but infrequent contact 
in the past.  I was not trying to take sides by favoring one over the 
other. 

The meeting itself went well and without any unpleasant incident 
whatsoever.  It is true that the ARA showed up with posters objecting 
to the meeting, but police held them in check on the other side of 
the street, and as far as I know, there wasn't even any shouting.  I 
briefly walked over to the police, introduced myself as the speaker, 
and gave them two copies of Ernst's prison memoirs.  I said I was 
sorry if my presence was causing any trouble.  One of the policemen 
replied that I had nothing to do with it;  that the ARA habitually 
showed up whenever they got wind of a program  by groups they 
consider their opposition.  I said to him:  "Somebody probably paid 
them with some hamburgers," and he smiled broadly and said that I was 
right;  that that's how these demonstrations came about - and not to 
worry;  nothing was going to happen.  Nothing did.

There was also a reporter, a young journalism graduate, from a local 
paper who had come to interview me.  I invited her to stay for the 
program, and she said she had to decline due to a prior commitment. 
She was curious and friendly.  She asked a few superficial questions 
because there was no time to do an in-depth interview, and I gave her 
Ernst's book as a reference.  I asked how she was notified of the 
program, and she said a call had come in to the paper - "actually, 
from your opponents."   Naturally, I assumed that to have been the 
ARA.

I have not yet seen the write-up. 

Nor have I seen any of the acrimonious e-mails I have been told are 
flying back and forth between some members of the National Alliance 
and Vanguard. 

Never at any time did I feel threatened or feel that I had been 
misled or used by one group against the other.  As I said, I did not 
know about the split - I had been invited before the split even 
occurred.  I was treated courteously and with respect at the New 
Jersey meeting, and I have nothing negative to say whatsoever.  On 
the contrary.  It was a pleasant evening, supportive of Ernst's 
struggle.  

Please don't make more out of this than it was - as I said, a 
courtesy gesture of thanks on my part extended to a small group of 
people, some of whom, I understand, had demonstrated before the 
Canadian Consulates a few months ago. 

If my schedule permits and if I am in the area, I am perfectly 
willing to speak to the now truncated National Alliance as well to 
balance things out.  I know good people in either group.  Please 
don't use my name to make more of this evening than it was meant to 
be.  Please just don't put me in the middle - I have more controversy 
on my hands already than I need.

Ingrid Zundel