Ernst Zündel
Encyclopedia
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel (born April 24, 1939) is a German
Holocaust denier
and pamphlet
eer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa
, and in Germany for charges of "inciting racial hatred." He lived in Canada
from 1958 to 2000.
In 1977, Zündel founded a small press publishing house called Samisdat Publishers
which issued such pamphlets as "The Hitler We Loved and Why" and "Did Six Million Really Die?
", both prominent documents of the Holocaust denial movement.
On February 5, 2003, Ernst Zündel was detained by U.S. local police and deported to Canada, where he was detained for two years on a Security Certificate
for being a foreign national alleged to be a threat to national security
pending a court decision on the validity of the certificate. Once the certificate was upheld and Zündel was determined to be a national security risk he was deported to Germany
and tried in the state court of Mannheim
on outstanding charges of incitement for Holocaust denial
dating from the early 1990s. On February 15, 2007, he was convicted and sentenced to the maximum term of five years in prison. He was released on March 1, 2010.
in Baden-Württemberg
and emigrated to Canada from West Germany in 1958, when he was 19, to avoid being conscripted by the German military. He married a French-Canadian, Janick Larouche, in 1960 with whom he had two sons, Pierre and Hans. During the 1960s he came under the tutelage of Canadian fascist Adrien Arcand
.
Professionally, Zündel worked as a graphic artist and printer. On several occasions in the 1960s he was commissioned to illustrate covers for Maclean's Magazine. His views on Nazism
and Jews were not well known in the 1960s and 1970s as he published his opinions under the pseudonym Christof Friedrich. At the time, he was also an organizer among immigrants for the Ralliement des créditistes, Quebec's Social Credit
party. In 1968 he joined the Liberal Party of Canada
and ran in that year's Liberal leadership convention under the name Ernest Zundel as a self-described "nuisance candidate" running on an "immigrant rights" platform. He used his candidacy to allege that Canadian society was replete with anti-German
attitudes. He dropped out of the contest prior to the voting, but not before delivering his campaign speech to the convention.
Zündel gained prominence and respectability during the 1970s as spokesman for Concerned Parents of German Descent, a group which claimed that German-Canadians and their children were the target of discrimination due to anti-German stereotyping in the media. In the late 1970s, Zündel, as the group's spokesman, issued press releases protesting the NBC Holocaust miniseries for its depiction of Germans. In the late 1970s, reporter Mark Bonokoski
unmasked Zündel and ended his career as a credible media spokesperson by revealing that using his Christof Freidrich pseudonym he was publishing neo-nazi and antisemitic pamphlets such as The Hitler We Loved and Why.
His first marriage ended in 1977 as his public notoriety grew.
In 1984, a pipe bomb blasted a hole through Zündel's garage door.
Zündel campaigned in Canada to ban the movie Schindler's List
on the grounds that it "generates hatred against Germans, and it should be possible to ban it under 'hate laws' in Canada, Germany, and other countries" and celebrated the movie being banned in Malaysia and the Philippines
, and effectively banned in Lebanon
and Jordan
.
On May 8, 1995, his Toronto
residence at 206 Carlton Street was the target of an arson attack resulting in $400,000 in damage. A group calling itself the "Jewish Armed Resistance Movement" claimed responsibility for the arson attack; according to the Toronto Sun
, the group had ties to the Jewish Defense League
, and to the extremist group Kahane Chai. The leader of the Toronto wing of the Jewish Defense League, Meir Weinstein
, (known then as Meir Halevi) denied involvement in the attack. Five days later, Weinstein and US JDL leader Irv Rubin
were caught trying to break into the Zündel property, where he was apprehended by police. No charges have ever been laid in the incident. Later the same month Zündel was the recipient of a parcel bomb that was detonated by the Toronto Police Service's bomb squad. The investigation into the parcel bomb attack led to charges being laid against David Barbarash
, an animal rights
activist based in British Columbia
, but they were eventually stayed.
in the 1970s, he initially catered to the UFOlogy
community, which was then at its peak of public acceptance. His main offerings were his own books claiming that flying saucers were Nazi secret weapons launched from an underground base in Antarctica, from which the Nazis hoped to conquer the world.
Under the pseudonyms 'Christof Friedrich' and 'Mattern Friedrich', he also wrote several publications promoting the idea that UFOs were really secret weapons of the Nazis who had fled to New Swabia
in Antarctica ('Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions' [1978] and 'Hitler at the South Pole' [1979]). He promoted the idea of Nazi secret bases in Antarctica, Nazi UFOs
, secret polar bases and Hollow Earth
theories.
Along with publishing Willibald Mattern, a German émigré living in Santiago
de Chile, books on Nazi UFO in its original German and translated into English, with Willibald Mattern, wrote 'UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapon?'.
The UFOs supposedly monitor humanity, and are part of a secret plan to re-conquer the world at an unspecified time. Whether he actually believed these notions or it was just a publicity stunt cannot be ascertained.
In the Samisdat Publishers
newsletter of 1978, Zündel advertised an expedition to Antarctica to find these bases and UFOs. A ticket would cost $9,999 for a seat on an exploration team to locate the polar entrance to the hollow earth. This expedition never took place.
According to Frank Miele
, a member of the Skeptics Society in the United States, Zündel told him that his book 'UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapon?' (which became an underground bestseller, going through several printings) was nothing more than a ploy to attract readers, a deliberate hoax to build publicity for Samisdat. Said Zündel in a telephone conversation with Miele:
"I realized that North Americans were not interested in being educated. They want to be entertained. The book was for fun. With a picture of the Führer on the cover and flying saucers coming out of Antarctica it was a chance to get on radio and TV talk shows. For about 15 minutes of an hour program I'd talk about that esoteric stuff. Then I would start talking about all those Jewish scientists in concentration camps, working on these secret weapons. And that was my chance to talk about what I wanted to talk about." "In that case," I asked him, "do you still stand by what you wrote in the UFO book?" "Look," he replied, "it has a question mark at the end of the title."
Zündel continued to defend these views as late as 2002.
In the 1970s, Zündel founded a small publishing house called Samisdat Publishers
. Samisdat initially produced UFO-related books, some of them written pseudonym
ously by Zündel. Within a few years it began disseminating Nazi sympathizer literature, including Zündel's The Hitler We Loved and Why, Richard Verrall
's Did Six Million Really Die?, and works by Malcolm Ross
.
By the early 1980s, Samisdat Publications had grown into a worldwide distributor of Nazi and neo-Nazi posters, audiotapes, and memorabilia, as well as pamphlets and books devoted to Holocaust denial and Allied and Zionist "war crimes", claiming a mailing list of 29,000 in the United States alone. Advertisements for Samisdat Publications were purchased in well-known reputable American magazines and even comic books. West Germany
became another large market, in violation of their Volksverhetzung (incitement of the masses) laws preventing Holocaust denial and dissemination of Nazi and neo-Nazi material, going so far as to send mass mailings to every member of the West German Bundestag (parliament).
In December 1980, the West German Federal Ministry of Finance told the Bundestag
that between January 1978, and December 1979, "200 shipments of right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi content including books, periodicals, symbols, decorations, films, cassettes, and records" had been intercepted entering West Germany; these shipments "came overwhelmingly from Canada." On April 23, 1981, the West German government sent a letter to the Canadian Jewish Congress
, confirming that the source of the material was Samisdat Publishers.
From 1981 to 1982 Zündel had his mailing privileges suspended by the Canadian government on the grounds that he had been using the mail to send hate propaganda
, a criminal offence in Canada. Zündel then began shipping from a post office box in Niagara Falls, New York, until the ban on his mailing in Canada was lifted in January 1983.
Zündel was a vocal supporter of alleged Nazi war criminals living in Canada. During the trial of Imre Finta
, Zündel was confronted outside the courthouse by a Holocaust survivor. Zündel told the survivor "Listen, yeah, we are gonna get you yet, don't you worry."
In 1997, Zündel told an interviewer from an Israeli newspaper that "[t]he Jews of the world have a Holocaust coming, and all the gruesome lies that they have told about people like Germans during the Second World War—all those grotesque Spielberg
-like distortions of what really took place—one day will come back to haunt Jews, and I want to not be around when that happens."
. In 1984, the Ontario government joined the criminal proceedings against Zündel based on Citron's complaint. Zündel was charged under the Criminal Code, section 181, of spreading false news for publishing "Did Six Million Really Die?
".
Zündel underwent two criminal trials in 1985 and 1988. The charge against Zündel alleged that he "did publish a statement or tale, namely, "Did Six Million Really Die?" that he knows is false and that is likely to cause mischief to the public interest in social and racial tolerance, contrary to the Criminal Code." After a much publicized trial in 1985, Zündel was found guilty. After his conviction, Zündel was able to have it overturned in an appeal on a legal technicality, leading to a second trial in 1988, in which he was again convicted. Zündel was originally found guilty by two juries but was finally acquitted upon appeal by the Supreme Court of Canada
which held in 1992 that section 181 (formerly known as section 177) was a violation of the guarantees of freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
.
The 1988 trial was notable for its reliance on testimony from individuals such as David Irving
and Fred A. Leuchter
, a self-taught technician in execution technology. Leuchter's testimony as an expert witness was accepted by the court, but his accompanying Leuchter report
was excluded, based on his lack of engineering credentials. In 1985, key expert testimony against Zündel's alleged Holocaust denial was provided at great lengths by Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg
. Hilberg refused to testify at Zündel's 1988 trial. Zündel was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment by an Ontario court; however, in 1992 in R. v. Zündel
his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada
when the law he had been charged under, reporting false news, was ruled unconstitutional.
for promoting hatred against Jews via his website. In January 2000, before the Commission had completed its hearings, he left Canada for Sevierville, Tennessee
where he married his third wife, Ingrid Rimland
and vowed never to return to Canada.
status in Canada, despite the fact that his permanent residency status in Canada had expired owing to his prolonged absence from the country. At his hearing, Zündel described himself as "the Gandhi of the right."
status in hopes of preventing his deportation to Germany. This claim elicited public ridicule, Rex Murphy
, a columnist for the Globe and Mail and a well known commentator on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
wrote "If Ernst Zündel is a refugee, Daffy Duck
is Albert Einstein
... Some propositions are so ludicrous that they are a betrayal of common sense and human dignity if allowed a moment's oxygen."
On May 2, 2003, Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre
and Solicitor General Wayne Easter
issued a "national security certificate
" against Zündel under the provisions of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, indicating that he was a threat to Canada's national security
of Canadian citizens owing to his alleged links with violent neo-Nazi groups including Aryan Nations
leader Richard Girnt Butler
, neo-Nazi Christian Worch
, and former Canadian Aryan Nations leader Terry Long
, as well as Ewald Althans, convicted in a German court in 1995 of charges that included insulting the memory of the dead and insulting the state.
Zündel moved twice to have Canadian Federal Court
justice Pierre Blais
recuse himself from the case for "badgering and accusing the witness of lying" and exhibiting "open hostility" towards Zündel, and filed two constitutional challenges, one in the Ontario courts and one in the federal courts, both unsuccessful. During the hearing, Zündel characterized his position as "Sometimes I feel like a black man being convicted on Ku Klux Klan
news clippings."
Zündel meanwhile moved to be released from detention on his own recognizance while the legal proceedings were ongoing. His lawyer, Doug Christie
, introduced as a "surprise witness" Lorraine Day
, a California doctor who practises alternative cancer treatments, to testify that Zündel's incarceration at Toronto's Metro West Detention Centre was causing his chest tumor (revealed to the court a few weeks previously) to grow and his blood pressure to rise, that the medication supplied to control his blood pressure was causing side-effects such as a slow heart rate and loss of memory, and that "He needs exercise, fresh air, and freedom from stress. The whole point is we need to have his high blood pressure controlled without the drug."
On January 21, 2004, after three months of hearings including both public and secret testimony, Justice Blais again ruled against Zündel with a damning statement.
During his imprisonment, Canadian neo-Nazi leader Paul Fromm attempted to hold numerous rallies in support of Zündel, both in Ontario and in Alberta. The rallies were met with formidable opposition, namely by the Anti-Racist Action
group, which heightened its opposition to Fromm's pro-Zündel work in the summer of 2004. The anti-racist efforts included participation by numerous Toronto activist groups and individuals, including Shane Ruttle Martinez and Marcell Rodden, and successfully managed to prevent similar future congregations of the neo-Nazis. Fromm eventually ceased his efforts after being advised by Zündel's attorneys that public clashes between opponents of the Zündel issues was not assisting the image of their client's case.
On February 24, 2005, Justice Blais ruled that Canada could deport Zündel back to his native Germany at any time, and on February 25 Zündel's lawyer, Peter Lindsay, announced that his client would not attempt to obtain a stay against the deportation and that his fight to remain in Canada was over. In his decision, Justice Blais noted that Zündel had had the opportunity to respond to the allegations of the decision of January 21 by explaining the nature of his contacts with the extremists mentioned and/or providing exonerating witnesses, but had failed to do so. Blais found that "Mr. Zündel's activities are not only a threat to Canada's national security, but also a threat to the international community of nations."
Zündel was deported to Germany on March 1, 2005. Upon his arrival at Frankfurt airport, he was immediately arrested and detained in Mannheim prison awaiting trial for inciting racial hatred. In 2007, Zündel's appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee
against deportation was rejected, partly for failure to exhaust domestic remedies, partly as lying outside Committee's competence.
) with up to 5 years in prison. The indictment says Zündel "denied the fate of destruction for the Jews planned by National Socialist
powerholders and justified this by saying that the mass destruction in Auschwitz and Treblinka, among others, were an invention of the Jews and served the repression and extortion of the German people."
His trial was scheduled for five days beginning November 8, 2005, but ran into an early delay when Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen ruled that Horst Mahler
, whose license to practice as a lawyer was withdrawn in 2004 and who, in January 2005, was sentenced to nine months in prison for inciting racial hatred, could not be part of the defense team. Mahler had been associated with the violent far-left Red Army Faction
in the 1970s, but has since become a supporter of far-right and antisemitic groups. Zündel's public defender Sylvia Stolz
was also dismissed, on the grounds that her written submissions to the court included Mahler's ideas. On November 15, 2005, Meinerzhagen announced that the trial was to be rescheduled to allow new counsel time to prepare.
The trial resumed on February 9, 2006 for several court sessions but then adjourned on March 9 when the trial judge asked for Stolz to be removed as Zündel's defence lawyer after Stolz denounced the court as a "tool of foreign domination" and described the Jews as an "enemy people". On March 31 the superior state court in Karlsruhe removed Stolz from the case for illegally obstructing proceedings "with the sole goal of sabotaging the trial . . . and making it into a farce".
The trial again resumed on June 9, 2006 and continued, intermittently, into early 2007. The prosecution concluded its case on January 26, 2007 calling for Zündel to be handed the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment with state prosecutor Andreas Grossman calling him a "political con man" from whom the German people needed protection. After quoting extensively from Zündel's writings on the Holocaust, Grossman argued "[you] might as well argue that the sun rises in the West... But you cannot change that the Holocaust has been proven." In its closing arguments the defence has called for Zündel to be acquitted.
On February 15, 2007, Zündel was sentenced to a five year term in prison, the maximum sentence possible for violating the Volksverhetzung
law (Section 130, 2.(3)) in the German criminal code which bans incitement of hatred against a minority of the population, which is how his Holocaust denial
was interpreted by the Federal German court.[dead link]
His time in pre-trial confinement in Canada was not taken into account on his sentence, but only the two years he was confined in Germany since 2005. One of his lawyers was excluded from the process for agitation and had to be carried out of the courtroom. Another lawyer, Jürgen Rieger
, a leading member of Germany's NPD
, was forbidden to voice petitions and ruled to put them down in writing; he let another lawyer read them aloud. Another lawyer read parts of Mein Kampf
and parts of the NS race legislation aloud in his closing speech. Zündel asked for the inception of an expert's commission to examine the Holocaust. The judge in his emotional closing speech called Zündel an „Brunnenvergifter und Brandstifter, einen Verehrer dieses menschenverachtenden Barbaren Adolf Hitler, von dem er dummdreist daherschwafelt.“, in English roughly translated "well-poisoner and arsonist, an admirer of this human-despising barbarian Adolf Hitler
, of whom he rambles on with brash impertinence". It is believed that the Holocaust deniers are using this process and the coming revisions to show that freedom of speech
was impaired in Germany depending on the ideology of the speaker.
re-iterated that Zündel will not be permitted to return to Canada. "In 2005, a Federal Court judge confirmed that Zündel is inadmissible on security grounds for being a danger to the security of Canada," Mr. Toews said in a written statement adding that, "The decision reinforced the government of Canada's position that this country will not be a safe haven for individuals who pose a risk to Canada's national security."
Zündel indicated that he intends to return to his family home in the Black Forest
in order to recuperate from his prison experience.
columnist Mark Bonokoski, Zündel's mother was Gertrude Mayer and his maternal grandparents were the Jewish Mr. and Mrs. Nagal and Isador (Izzy) Mayer. Izzy Mayer was a trade union
organizer for the garment industry in the Bavaria
n city
of Augsburg
.
According to Bonokoski, Ernst's ex-wife Irene Zündel said that the possibility of being at least part-Jewish bothered Zündel so much that he returned to Germany in the 1960s in search of his family's Ariernachweis
, a Nazi-era certificate of pure Aryan
blood, but was unable to find any such document for his family.
In 1997, Zündel granted an interview
to Tsadok Yecheskeli of the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth
that includes the following exchange:
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
and pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
eer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
, and in Germany for charges of "inciting racial hatred." He lived in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from 1958 to 2000.
In 1977, Zündel founded a small press publishing house called Samisdat Publishers
Samisdat Publishers
Samisdat Publishers, Ltd. was a small Canadian publishing house owned and operated by Ernst Zündel, a noted Holocaust denier, during the 1980s and 1990s...
which issued such pamphlets as "The Hitler We Loved and Why" and "Did Six Million Really Die?
Did Six Million Really Die?
Did Six Million Really Die? is a Holocaust denial booklet written by British National Front member Richard Verrall, under the name Richard E. Harwood, and published by Ernst Zündel in 1974...
", both prominent documents of the Holocaust denial movement.
On February 5, 2003, Ernst Zündel was detained by U.S. local police and deported to Canada, where he was detained for two years on a Security Certificate
Security certificate
In Canadian law, a security certificate is a mechanism by which the Government of Canada can detain and deport foreign nationals and all other non-citizens living in Canada...
for being a foreign national alleged to be a threat to national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
pending a court decision on the validity of the certificate. Once the certificate was upheld and Zündel was determined to be a national security risk he was deported to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and tried in the state court of Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
on outstanding charges of incitement for Holocaust denial
Laws against Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is illegal in a number of European countries. Many countries also have broader laws that criminalize genocide denial. In addition, the European Union has issued a directive to combat racism and xenophobia, which makes provision for member states criminalising Holocaust denial, with...
dating from the early 1990s. On February 15, 2007, he was convicted and sentenced to the maximum term of five years in prison. He was released on March 1, 2010.
Background
Zündel was born in the town of Bad WildbadBad Wildbad
Bad Wildbad is a town in Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located in the government district of Karlsruhe and in the district of Calw. Its coordinates are 48° 45' N, 8° 33' E. About 11,250 people live there...
in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
and emigrated to Canada from West Germany in 1958, when he was 19, to avoid being conscripted by the German military. He married a French-Canadian, Janick Larouche, in 1960 with whom he had two sons, Pierre and Hans. During the 1960s he came under the tutelage of Canadian fascist Adrien Arcand
Adrien Arcand
Adrien Arcand was a Montreal journalist who led a series of fascist political movements between 1929 and his death in 1967...
.
Professionally, Zündel worked as a graphic artist and printer. On several occasions in the 1960s he was commissioned to illustrate covers for Maclean's Magazine. His views on Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Jews were not well known in the 1960s and 1970s as he published his opinions under the pseudonym Christof Friedrich. At the time, he was also an organizer among immigrants for the Ralliement des créditistes, Quebec's Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
party. In 1968 he joined the Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
and ran in that year's Liberal leadership convention under the name Ernest Zundel as a self-described "nuisance candidate" running on an "immigrant rights" platform. He used his candidacy to allege that Canadian society was replete with anti-German
Anti-German sentiment
Anti-German sentiment is defined as an opposition to or fear of Germany, its inhabitants, and the German language. Its opposite is Germanophilia.-Russia:...
attitudes. He dropped out of the contest prior to the voting, but not before delivering his campaign speech to the convention.
Zündel gained prominence and respectability during the 1970s as spokesman for Concerned Parents of German Descent, a group which claimed that German-Canadians and their children were the target of discrimination due to anti-German stereotyping in the media. In the late 1970s, Zündel, as the group's spokesman, issued press releases protesting the NBC Holocaust miniseries for its depiction of Germans. In the late 1970s, reporter Mark Bonokoski
Mark Bonokoski
Mark Bonokoski is a Canadian journalist, editor, and broadcaster primarily associated with Sun Media/QMI.Bonokoski is a graduate of Ryerson University's journalism programme. He worked as a general assignment reporter with the Calgary Herald and then the Windsor Star before joining the Toronto Sun...
unmasked Zündel and ended his career as a credible media spokesperson by revealing that using his Christof Freidrich pseudonym he was publishing neo-nazi and antisemitic pamphlets such as The Hitler We Loved and Why.
His first marriage ended in 1977 as his public notoriety grew.
In 1984, a pipe bomb blasted a hole through Zündel's garage door.
Zündel campaigned in Canada to ban the movie Schindler's List
Schindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
on the grounds that it "generates hatred against Germans, and it should be possible to ban it under 'hate laws' in Canada, Germany, and other countries" and celebrated the movie being banned in Malaysia and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and effectively banned in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
.
On May 8, 1995, his Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
residence at 206 Carlton Street was the target of an arson attack resulting in $400,000 in damage. A group calling itself the "Jewish Armed Resistance Movement" claimed responsibility for the arson attack; according to the Toronto Sun
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
, the group had ties to the Jewish Defense League
Jewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League is a Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"...
, and to the extremist group Kahane Chai. The leader of the Toronto wing of the Jewish Defense League, Meir Weinstein
Meir Weinstein
Meir Weinstein is the national director of the Canadian branch of the extremist Jewish Defense League .-Background:...
, (known then as Meir Halevi) denied involvement in the attack. Five days later, Weinstein and US JDL leader Irv Rubin
Irv Rubin
Irving D. Rubin was chairman of the Jewish Defense League from 1985 to 2002. He allegedly committed suicide in jail when awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to bomb private and government property....
were caught trying to break into the Zündel property, where he was apprehended by police. No charges have ever been laid in the incident. Later the same month Zündel was the recipient of a parcel bomb that was detonated by the Toronto Police Service's bomb squad. The investigation into the parcel bomb attack led to charges being laid against David Barbarash
David Barbarash
David Barbarash was the North American press officer for the Animal Liberation Front from mid-1999 until late-2002. The ALF press office in the UK is run by Robin Webb...
, an animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activist based in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, but they were eventually stayed.
Nazi UFO claims
When Zündel started Samisdat PublishersSamisdat Publishers
Samisdat Publishers, Ltd. was a small Canadian publishing house owned and operated by Ernst Zündel, a noted Holocaust denier, during the 1980s and 1990s...
in the 1970s, he initially catered to the UFOlogy
Ufology
Ufology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects . UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years by governments, independent groups, and scientists...
community, which was then at its peak of public acceptance. His main offerings were his own books claiming that flying saucers were Nazi secret weapons launched from an underground base in Antarctica, from which the Nazis hoped to conquer the world.
Under the pseudonyms 'Christof Friedrich' and 'Mattern Friedrich', he also wrote several publications promoting the idea that UFOs were really secret weapons of the Nazis who had fled to New Swabia
New Swabia
New Swabia is a cartographic name sometimes given to an area of Antarctica between 20°E and 10°W in Queen Maud Land, which within Norway is administered as a Norwegian dependent territory under the Antarctic Treaty System...
in Antarctica ('Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions' [1978] and 'Hitler at the South Pole' [1979]). He promoted the idea of Nazi secret bases in Antarctica, Nazi UFOs
Nazi UFOs
In science fiction, conspiracy theory, and underground comic books, stories or claims circulate linking UFOs to Nazi Germany. These German UFO theories describe supposedly successful attempts to develop advanced aircraft or spacecraft prior to and during World War II, and further claim the...
, secret polar bases and Hollow Earth
Hollow Earth
The Hollow Earth hypothesis proposes that the planet Earth is either entirely hollow or otherwise contains a substantial interior space. The hypothesis has been shown to be wrong by observational evidence, as well as by the modern understanding of planet formation; the scientific community has...
theories.
Along with publishing Willibald Mattern, a German émigré living in Santiago
Santiago
Santiago is the capital city of Chile. Santiago may also refer to:*Santiago *Santiago , a Spanish given name*Santiago!, a shortened form of the Reconquista battle cry "Santiago y cierra, España"...
de Chile, books on Nazi UFO in its original German and translated into English, with Willibald Mattern, wrote 'UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapon?'.
The UFOs supposedly monitor humanity, and are part of a secret plan to re-conquer the world at an unspecified time. Whether he actually believed these notions or it was just a publicity stunt cannot be ascertained.
In the Samisdat Publishers
Samisdat Publishers
Samisdat Publishers, Ltd. was a small Canadian publishing house owned and operated by Ernst Zündel, a noted Holocaust denier, during the 1980s and 1990s...
newsletter of 1978, Zündel advertised an expedition to Antarctica to find these bases and UFOs. A ticket would cost $9,999 for a seat on an exploration team to locate the polar entrance to the hollow earth. This expedition never took place.
According to Frank Miele
Frank Miele
Frank Miele is an American journalist and senior editor at Skeptic. He is best known for his controversial advocacy of hereditarian hypotheses about race, especially race and intelligence....
, a member of the Skeptics Society in the United States, Zündel told him that his book 'UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapon?' (which became an underground bestseller, going through several printings) was nothing more than a ploy to attract readers, a deliberate hoax to build publicity for Samisdat. Said Zündel in a telephone conversation with Miele:
"I realized that North Americans were not interested in being educated. They want to be entertained. The book was for fun. With a picture of the Führer on the cover and flying saucers coming out of Antarctica it was a chance to get on radio and TV talk shows. For about 15 minutes of an hour program I'd talk about that esoteric stuff. Then I would start talking about all those Jewish scientists in concentration camps, working on these secret weapons. And that was my chance to talk about what I wanted to talk about." "In that case," I asked him, "do you still stand by what you wrote in the UFO book?" "Look," he replied, "it has a question mark at the end of the title."
Zündel continued to defend these views as late as 2002.
Holocaust denial
Samisdat Publishers
Samisdat Publishers, Ltd. was a small Canadian publishing house owned and operated by Ernst Zündel, a noted Holocaust denier, during the 1980s and 1990s...
. Samisdat initially produced UFO-related books, some of them written pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
ously by Zündel. Within a few years it began disseminating Nazi sympathizer literature, including Zündel's The Hitler We Loved and Why, Richard Verrall
Richard Verrall
Richard Verrall is a former Deputy Chairman of the British National Front , he edited the magazine Spearhead from 1976 to 1980.-National Front career:...
's Did Six Million Really Die?, and works by Malcolm Ross
Malcolm Ross (anti-Semite)
Malcolm Ross is a former schoolteacher from the Canadian city of Moncton, who became notable for his antisemitic writings, including Holocaust denial....
.
By the early 1980s, Samisdat Publications had grown into a worldwide distributor of Nazi and neo-Nazi posters, audiotapes, and memorabilia, as well as pamphlets and books devoted to Holocaust denial and Allied and Zionist "war crimes", claiming a mailing list of 29,000 in the United States alone. Advertisements for Samisdat Publications were purchased in well-known reputable American magazines and even comic books. West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
became another large market, in violation of their Volksverhetzung (incitement of the masses) laws preventing Holocaust denial and dissemination of Nazi and neo-Nazi material, going so far as to send mass mailings to every member of the West German Bundestag (parliament).
In December 1980, the West German Federal Ministry of Finance told the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
that between January 1978, and December 1979, "200 shipments of right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi content including books, periodicals, symbols, decorations, films, cassettes, and records" had been intercepted entering West Germany; these shipments "came overwhelmingly from Canada." On April 23, 1981, the West German government sent a letter to the Canadian Jewish Congress
Canadian Jewish Congress
The Canadian Jewish Congress was one of the main lobby groups for the Jewish community in the country, although it often competed with the more conservative B'nai Brith Canada in that regard. At its dissolution, the president of the CJC was Mark Freiman. Its past co-presidents were Sylvain Abitbol...
, confirming that the source of the material was Samisdat Publishers.
From 1981 to 1982 Zündel had his mailing privileges suspended by the Canadian government on the grounds that he had been using the mail to send hate propaganda
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
, a criminal offence in Canada. Zündel then began shipping from a post office box in Niagara Falls, New York, until the ban on his mailing in Canada was lifted in January 1983.
Zündel was a vocal supporter of alleged Nazi war criminals living in Canada. During the trial of Imre Finta
Imre Finta
Imre Finta was the first person prosecuted under Canada's war crimes legislation. He was charged in 1987 and acquitted in 1990.Imre Finta was a commander of the Gendarmerie in Szeged, Hungary during the Second World War. He immigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Toronto in 1953 where he...
, Zündel was confronted outside the courthouse by a Holocaust survivor. Zündel told the survivor "Listen, yeah, we are gonna get you yet, don't you worry."
In 1997, Zündel told an interviewer from an Israeli newspaper that "[t]he Jews of the world have a Holocaust coming, and all the gruesome lies that they have told about people like Germans during the Second World War—all those grotesque Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
-like distortions of what really took place—one day will come back to haunt Jews, and I want to not be around when that happens."
Trials in the 1980s
In 1983 Sabrina Citron, a Holocaust survivor and founder of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association, filed a private complaint against Zündel before the Canadian Human Rights TribunalCanadian Human Rights Tribunal
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is an administrative tribunal established in 1977 by the Canadian Human Rights Act. It is directly funded by the Parliament of Canada and is independent of the Canadian Human Rights Commission which refers cases to it for adjudication under the Act.The Tribunal...
. In 1984, the Ontario government joined the criminal proceedings against Zündel based on Citron's complaint. Zündel was charged under the Criminal Code, section 181, of spreading false news for publishing "Did Six Million Really Die?
Did Six Million Really Die?
Did Six Million Really Die? is a Holocaust denial booklet written by British National Front member Richard Verrall, under the name Richard E. Harwood, and published by Ernst Zündel in 1974...
".
Zündel underwent two criminal trials in 1985 and 1988. The charge against Zündel alleged that he "did publish a statement or tale, namely, "Did Six Million Really Die?" that he knows is false and that is likely to cause mischief to the public interest in social and racial tolerance, contrary to the Criminal Code." After a much publicized trial in 1985, Zündel was found guilty. After his conviction, Zündel was able to have it overturned in an appeal on a legal technicality, leading to a second trial in 1988, in which he was again convicted. Zündel was originally found guilty by two juries but was finally acquitted upon appeal by the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
which held in 1992 that section 181 (formerly known as section 177) was a violation of the guarantees of freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
.
The 1988 trial was notable for its reliance on testimony from individuals such as David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
and Fred A. Leuchter
Fred A. Leuchter
Frederick A. Leuchter, Jr. is an American Federal Court qualified expert in execution technology and author of forensic Holocaust denial material. He claims to have improved the design of instruments for capital punishment and had execution equipment contracts with several states...
, a self-taught technician in execution technology. Leuchter's testimony as an expert witness was accepted by the court, but his accompanying Leuchter report
Leuchter report
The Leuchter report is a pseudoscientific document authored by American execution technician Fred A. Leuchter. For the defense in the trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, Leuchter compiled the report in 1988 with the intention of investigating the feasibility of mass homicidal gassings at Nazi...
was excluded, based on his lack of engineering credentials. In 1985, key expert testimony against Zündel's alleged Holocaust denial was provided at great lengths by Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg
Raul Hilberg
Raul Hilberg was an Austrian-born American political scientist and historian. He was widely considered to be the world's preeminent scholar of the Holocaust, and his three-volume, 1,273-page magnum opus, The Destruction of the European Jews, is regarded as a seminal study of the Nazi Final...
. Hilberg refused to testify at Zündel's 1988 trial. Zündel was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment by an Ontario court; however, in 1992 in R. v. Zündel
R. v. Zundel
R. v. Zundel [1992] 2 S.C.R. 731 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision where the Court struck down the provision in the Criminal Code of Canada that prohibited publication of false information or news on the basis that it violated the freedom of expression provision under section 2 of the...
his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
when the law he had been charged under, reporting false news, was ruled unconstitutional.
Canadian Human Rights Commission hearing and first departure from Canada
In 1997, Zündel's marriage with his second wife, Irene Marcarelli, collapsed after 18 months. "At one point I really loved him," she told an acquaintance. "By the end, I thought he was evil incarnate." She subsequently testified against him in the late 1990s when he was under investigation by the Canadian Human Rights CommissionCanadian Human Rights Commission
The Canadian Human Rights Commission is a quasi-judicial body that was established in 1977 by the government of Canada. It is empowered under the Canadian Human Rights Act to investigate and try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the provision of services within federal...
for promoting hatred against Jews via his website. In January 2000, before the Commission had completed its hearings, he left Canada for Sevierville, Tennessee
Sevierville, Tennessee
Sevierville is a city in Sevier County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern United States. Its population was 11,757 at the 2000 United States Census; in 2004 the estimated population was 14,101. Sevierville is the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee....
where he married his third wife, Ingrid Rimland
Ingrid Rimland
Ingrid Rimland, Ed.D. is a Ukrainian-born American author, child psychologist, activist and former social worker. She has written several novels loosely based upon her own experiences from growing up in a Mennonite community in Ukraine and as a refugee child during WWII...
and vowed never to return to Canada.
Deportation from the United States
In 2003, Zündel was arrested in the United States for violating that country's immigration rules, specifically visa waiver overstay, which he argues was a "trumped up" charge. After two weeks he was deported. Zündel being a German citizen, a warrant for his arrest for Volksverhetzung (incitement of the masses) had been issued in Germany in the same year and he sought refugeeCanadian immigration and refugee law
Canadian immigration and refugee law concerns the area of law related to the admission of foreign nationals into Canada, their rights and responsibilities once admitted, and the conditions of their removal...
status in Canada, despite the fact that his permanent residency status in Canada had expired owing to his prolonged absence from the country. At his hearing, Zündel described himself as "the Gandhi of the right."
Detention and deportation from Canada
Despite having lived in Canada for over forty years prior to moving to the United States, Zündel never obtained Canadian citizenship. Applications for citizenship were rejected in 1966 and again in 1994 for reasons that have never been publicly disclosed. So, upon his return to Canada, he had no status in the country as he was not a citizen and as his landed immigrant status had been forfeited by his prolonged absence from the country. Upon entry into Canada, Zündel claimed refugeeRefugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
status in hopes of preventing his deportation to Germany. This claim elicited public ridicule, Rex Murphy
Rex Murphy
Rex Murphy is a Canadian commentator and author, primarily on Canadian political and social matters.Murphy was born in Carbonear, Newfoundland, 105 kilometres west of St. John's and is the second of five children of Harry and Marie Murphy...
, a columnist for the Globe and Mail and a well known commentator on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
wrote "If Ernst Zündel is a refugee, Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
is Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
... Some propositions are so ludicrous that they are a betrayal of common sense and human dignity if allowed a moment's oxygen."
On May 2, 2003, Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre
Denis Coderre
Denis Coderre, PC, MP is a Canadian politician from Quebec, Canada. Coderre is the Liberal Member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Bourassa.-Background:...
and Solicitor General Wayne Easter
Wayne Easter
Arnold Wayne Easter, PC, MP is a Canadian politician.-Before politics:Born in North Wiltshire, Prince Edward Island the son of A. Leith Easter and Hope MacLeod, he was educated at the Charlottetown Rural High School and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. In 1970, he married Helen Arleighn...
issued a "national security certificate
Security certificate
In Canadian law, a security certificate is a mechanism by which the Government of Canada can detain and deport foreign nationals and all other non-citizens living in Canada...
" against Zündel under the provisions of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, indicating that he was a threat to Canada's national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
of Canadian citizens owing to his alleged links with violent neo-Nazi groups including Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization originally based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s, as an arm of the Christian Identity organization Church of Jesus Christ–Christian...
leader Richard Girnt Butler
Richard Girnt Butler
Richard Girnt Butler was an American aerospace engineer for Lockheed, who later became the leader of the Christian Identity white supremacist group Aryan Nations.-Biography:...
, neo-Nazi Christian Worch
Christian Worch
Christian Worch is one of the most important figures of the German neo-Nazi scene.In 1974 Worch started a militant group called the Hansabande in Hamburg, along with Michael Kühnen. The group defaced Jewish cemeteries, assaulted leftists and foreigners, and denied the Holocaust...
, and former Canadian Aryan Nations leader Terry Long
Terry Long (white supremacist)
Terry Long is the former leader of the Aryan Nations in Canada.He ran for public office in British Columbia as a member of the Western Canada Concept party....
, as well as Ewald Althans, convicted in a German court in 1995 of charges that included insulting the memory of the dead and insulting the state.
Zündel moved twice to have Canadian Federal Court
Federal Court of Canada
The Federal Court of Canada was a national court of Canada that heard some types of disputes arising under the central government's legislative jurisdiction...
justice Pierre Blais
Pierre Blais
Pierre Blais, PC is a Canadian jurist and former politician and Cabinet minister. He is currently the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal...
recuse himself from the case for "badgering and accusing the witness of lying" and exhibiting "open hostility" towards Zündel, and filed two constitutional challenges, one in the Ontario courts and one in the federal courts, both unsuccessful. During the hearing, Zündel characterized his position as "Sometimes I feel like a black man being convicted on Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
news clippings."
Zündel meanwhile moved to be released from detention on his own recognizance while the legal proceedings were ongoing. His lawyer, Doug Christie
Doug Christie (lawyer)
Douglas Hewson "Doug" Christie, Jr. is a Canadian lawyer and far-right political activist based in Victoria, British Columbia.-Career:...
, introduced as a "surprise witness" Lorraine Day
Lorraine Day
Lorraine Jeanette Day M.D. is a practitioner of alternative medicine who claims to have discovered the cause and cure of cancer, as a result of God showing her how to recover from her own cancer with a 10 step plan. According to her theory, all cancers are due to weakness of the immune system...
, a California doctor who practises alternative cancer treatments, to testify that Zündel's incarceration at Toronto's Metro West Detention Centre was causing his chest tumor (revealed to the court a few weeks previously) to grow and his blood pressure to rise, that the medication supplied to control his blood pressure was causing side-effects such as a slow heart rate and loss of memory, and that "He needs exercise, fresh air, and freedom from stress. The whole point is we need to have his high blood pressure controlled without the drug."
On January 21, 2004, after three months of hearings including both public and secret testimony, Justice Blais again ruled against Zündel with a damning statement.
During his imprisonment, Canadian neo-Nazi leader Paul Fromm attempted to hold numerous rallies in support of Zündel, both in Ontario and in Alberta. The rallies were met with formidable opposition, namely by the Anti-Racist Action
Anti-Racist Action
The Anti-Racist Action Network is a decentralized network of anti-fascist and anti-racists in North America. ARA activists organize actions to disrupt neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, and help organize activities against fascist and racist ideologies. ARA groups also oppose sexism,...
group, which heightened its opposition to Fromm's pro-Zündel work in the summer of 2004. The anti-racist efforts included participation by numerous Toronto activist groups and individuals, including Shane Ruttle Martinez and Marcell Rodden, and successfully managed to prevent similar future congregations of the neo-Nazis. Fromm eventually ceased his efforts after being advised by Zündel's attorneys that public clashes between opponents of the Zündel issues was not assisting the image of their client's case.
On February 24, 2005, Justice Blais ruled that Canada could deport Zündel back to his native Germany at any time, and on February 25 Zündel's lawyer, Peter Lindsay, announced that his client would not attempt to obtain a stay against the deportation and that his fight to remain in Canada was over. In his decision, Justice Blais noted that Zündel had had the opportunity to respond to the allegations of the decision of January 21 by explaining the nature of his contacts with the extremists mentioned and/or providing exonerating witnesses, but had failed to do so. Blais found that "Mr. Zündel's activities are not only a threat to Canada's national security, but also a threat to the international community of nations."
Zündel was deported to Germany on March 1, 2005. Upon his arrival at Frankfurt airport, he was immediately arrested and detained in Mannheim prison awaiting trial for inciting racial hatred. In 2007, Zündel's appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee
Human Rights Committee
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets three times a year for four-week sessions to consider the five-yearly reports submitted by 162 UN member states on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,...
against deportation was rejected, partly for failure to exhaust domestic remedies, partly as lying outside Committee's competence.
Trial and imprisonment in Germany
German prosecutors charged Zündel on July 19, 2005, with fourteen counts of inciting racial hatred, which is punishable under German criminal law, Section 130, 2.(3) (Agitation (sedition) of the PeopleVolksverhetzung
Volksverhetzung is a concept in German criminal law that bans the incitement of hatred against a segment of the population. It often applies in, though it is not limited to, trials relating to Holocaust denial in Germany...
) with up to 5 years in prison. The indictment says Zündel "denied the fate of destruction for the Jews planned by National Socialist
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
powerholders and justified this by saying that the mass destruction in Auschwitz and Treblinka, among others, were an invention of the Jews and served the repression and extortion of the German people."
His trial was scheduled for five days beginning November 8, 2005, but ran into an early delay when Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen ruled that Horst Mahler
Horst Mahler
Horst Mahler is a former German lawyer and advocate of radical ideologies. He once was an extreme-left militant, a founding member of the Red Army Faction. Subsequently he became a Maoist and later shifted to the extreme-right. He was for a time a member of the National Democratic Party of Germany...
, whose license to practice as a lawyer was withdrawn in 2004 and who, in January 2005, was sentenced to nine months in prison for inciting racial hatred, could not be part of the defense team. Mahler had been associated with the violent far-left Red Army Faction
Red Army Faction
The radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
in the 1970s, but has since become a supporter of far-right and antisemitic groups. Zündel's public defender Sylvia Stolz
Sylvia Stolz
Sylvia Stolz is a German lawyer who defended Ernst Zündel at his trial for denying the Holocaust in February 2007. During that trial she called the Holocaust “the biggest lie in world history.” Zundel was convicted and is serving five years in prison...
was also dismissed, on the grounds that her written submissions to the court included Mahler's ideas. On November 15, 2005, Meinerzhagen announced that the trial was to be rescheduled to allow new counsel time to prepare.
The trial resumed on February 9, 2006 for several court sessions but then adjourned on March 9 when the trial judge asked for Stolz to be removed as Zündel's defence lawyer after Stolz denounced the court as a "tool of foreign domination" and described the Jews as an "enemy people". On March 31 the superior state court in Karlsruhe removed Stolz from the case for illegally obstructing proceedings "with the sole goal of sabotaging the trial . . . and making it into a farce".
The trial again resumed on June 9, 2006 and continued, intermittently, into early 2007. The prosecution concluded its case on January 26, 2007 calling for Zündel to be handed the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment with state prosecutor Andreas Grossman calling him a "political con man" from whom the German people needed protection. After quoting extensively from Zündel's writings on the Holocaust, Grossman argued "[you] might as well argue that the sun rises in the West... But you cannot change that the Holocaust has been proven." In its closing arguments the defence has called for Zündel to be acquitted.
On February 15, 2007, Zündel was sentenced to a five year term in prison, the maximum sentence possible for violating the Volksverhetzung
Volksverhetzung
Volksverhetzung is a concept in German criminal law that bans the incitement of hatred against a segment of the population. It often applies in, though it is not limited to, trials relating to Holocaust denial in Germany...
law (Section 130, 2.(3)) in the German criminal code which bans incitement of hatred against a minority of the population, which is how his Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
was interpreted by the Federal German court.[dead link]
His time in pre-trial confinement in Canada was not taken into account on his sentence, but only the two years he was confined in Germany since 2005. One of his lawyers was excluded from the process for agitation and had to be carried out of the courtroom. Another lawyer, Jürgen Rieger
Jürgen Rieger
Jürgen Rieger was a Hamburg lawyer, and deputy chairman of the National Democratic Party of Germany , known for his Holocaust denial....
, a leading member of Germany's NPD
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
, was forbidden to voice petitions and ruled to put them down in writing; he let another lawyer read them aloud. Another lawyer read parts of Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
and parts of the NS race legislation aloud in his closing speech. Zündel asked for the inception of an expert's commission to examine the Holocaust. The judge in his emotional closing speech called Zündel an „Brunnenvergifter und Brandstifter, einen Verehrer dieses menschenverachtenden Barbaren Adolf Hitler, von dem er dummdreist daherschwafelt.“, in English roughly translated "well-poisoner and arsonist, an admirer of this human-despising barbarian Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, of whom he rambles on with brash impertinence". It is believed that the Holocaust deniers are using this process and the coming revisions to show that freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
was impaired in Germany depending on the ideology of the speaker.
Release from prison
Zündel was released on March 1, 2010, five years after his deportation to Germany. Following the end of his prison term, Canadian Minister of Public Safety Vic ToewsVic Toews
Victor "Vic" Toews, PC QC MP is a Canadian politician. He has represented Provencher in the Canadian House of Commons since 2000, and currently serves in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Minister of Public Safety. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from...
re-iterated that Zündel will not be permitted to return to Canada. "In 2005, a Federal Court judge confirmed that Zündel is inadmissible on security grounds for being a danger to the security of Canada," Mr. Toews said in a written statement adding that, "The decision reinforced the government of Canada's position that this country will not be a safe haven for individuals who pose a risk to Canada's national security."
Zündel indicated that he intends to return to his family home in the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
in order to recuperate from his prison experience.
Ancestry
According to Toronto SunToronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
columnist Mark Bonokoski, Zündel's mother was Gertrude Mayer and his maternal grandparents were the Jewish Mr. and Mrs. Nagal and Isador (Izzy) Mayer. Izzy Mayer was a trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
organizer for the garment industry in the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
of Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
.
According to Bonokoski, Ernst's ex-wife Irene Zündel said that the possibility of being at least part-Jewish bothered Zündel so much that he returned to Germany in the 1960s in search of his family's Ariernachweis
Ahnenpass
The Ahnenpaß documented the Aryan lineage of citizens of Nazi Germany. It was one of the forms of the Aryan certificate ....
, a Nazi-era certificate of pure Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
blood, but was unable to find any such document for his family.
In 1997, Zündel granted an interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
to Tsadok Yecheskeli of the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth is a daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Since the 1970s, it has been the most widely circulated paper in Israel. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth retained the title of most widely read newspaper in Israel...
that includes the following exchange:
Zundel: "If you are fishing for any political information, my father was a Social Democrat, my mother a simple Christian woman. Her father had been a union organizer in Bavaria, and of the garment workers' union. His name got him into trouble because it was Isadore Mayer and, of course, he was called Izzy by his people and the people thought he ... "
Yecheskeli: "Was Jewish?"
Zundel: "No, I don't ... don't think so."
Yecheskeli: "Are you sure there's no Jewish blood in your family?"
Zundel: (In hushed voice) "No."
External links
- Zündelsite: Ernst Zündel's Web site
- Anti-Defamation League on Ernst Zundel
- Nizkor Project archive criticism of Zündel
- Ernst Zundel: Civil Rights Champion? from the Toronto Globe and Mail
- Will his ex bring him down? 1999 article from Now MagazineNOW (magazine)Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....
on Irene Zündel's testimony against her ex-husband - Full text of Justice Blais' decision February 24, 2005 ruling on the Zündel security certificate and deportation
- The Jewish Card, March 2, 2005 column by Mark Bonokoski of the Toronto SunToronto SunThe Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
alleging that Zündel is part Jewish. - Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. at Google Video