Pressaction: Let Ernst Zundel and David Irving Go Home

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Another mainstream media article chastizing governments for their 
outrageous censorship.  While I do not care for the conventional and 
expected "kicks in the shin" that this writer practices, I still 
think that such articles are better than silence.

=====

Let Ernst Zundel and David Irving Go Home

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/irving01062006/

Let Ernst Zundel and David Irving Go Home
Press Action
Friday, January 06, 2006

"I am uncomfortable with imprisoning people for speech."
-Deborah Lipstadt, on historian David Irving

Ernst Zundel and David Irving may be filled with hate, but they 
should not be treated as criminals. The German and Austrian 
governments are the ones who have committed outrageous crimes by 
jailing these men for voicing their opinions about the Holocaust.

Zundel and Irving are two of the world's most infamous Holocaust 
deniers. But they have not initiated physical violence against 
anyone. They have not ordered others to commit violence.

Instead, Germany has put Zundel on trial for operating the Zundelsite 
website, which contains statements that the Holocaust is a fiction. 
It's illegal in Germany to be a Holocaust denier.

In November, Irving was arrested in Austria for two speeches he made 
in 1989, during which he allegedly claimed there had been no gas 
chambers at Auschwitz. It's illegal in Austria to be a Holocaust 
denier.

The governments of Germany and Austria want to send Zundel and Irving 
to prison for many years for publicly expressing these beliefs.

Many liberal democracies around the world have passed laws that allow 
them to fine or imprison people for making public utterances that 
don't conform exactly to the official version of the Nazi Holocaust. 
Canada didn't like what Zundel said or wrote about the Holocaust. 
Last spring, Canadian officials shipped Zundel to Germany where they 
knew he would face prosecution for his speech. Zundel had immigrated 
to Canada from Germany in 1958 at the age of 19.

Instead of creating free and open societies, the governments involved 
in the prosecution of Zundel and Irving are carrying on the ignoble 
traditions of the Nazis by targeting people for their beliefs. Who 
are the nations confronting Germany, Austria and Canada for their 
roles in these grave injustices? There are none.

In fact, many are following these nations' example. In France, Bruno 
Gollnisch, a professor at Lyon University, deputy leader of the 
extreme right French party, National Front, and a member of the 
European parliament, is facing charges before a French court for 
Holocaust revisionism. The charges relate to comments made in October 
2004 suggesting the existence of Nazi gas chambers was "up to 
historians to decide."

However obscene one might deem the opinions of Zundel and Irving, 
their decision to speak their minds does not impinge on the freedom 
of others. The prosecuting governments, however, have the official 
capacity to deny people their freedom by rounding them up for the 
crime of publicly expressing scandalous beliefs. And Germany, Austria 
and Canada have taken full advantage of this authority.

The Nazis developed a policy of intimidation. The wrong comment 
overheard by a Nazi official could have dire consequences. Hitler's 
police state worked on the rule that if you said nothing, no harm 
could come to you. If you had doubts about the way Germany was going, 
you kept them to yourself-or paid the price.

The Nazis practiced an extreme form of totalitarian control. Today's 
enforcement of anti-hate speech laws obviously does not compare to 
what occurred in Nazi Germany. But the control exercised by these 
modern-day governments is founded on the belief that states have the 
fundamental right to punish individuals or groups who dare to say 
what the overwhelming majority of people might believe is 
preposterous.

In remembrance of the millions of people who died at the hands of the 
Nazis and their confederates, governments should be exerting less 
control over their populations, not imprisoning people for expressing 
their beliefs.

Copyright © 2002-2006 Press Action.
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