Summary of the last three hearing days in the Zundel Holocaust
Heresy Trial
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Fri Jul 7 06:56:36 EDT 2006
Zgram - To our supporters around the world -
For the past two months, I have had to deal with a very serious
family emergency, and my reports, even about Ernst's trial, have been
erratic and less than detailed. I am sorry about that - but there
are times when you can do only so much!
Below, I am summarizing the last three hearing dates of the
Mannheim-based Holocaust Heresy Trial. Unfortunately, these days
were less than dramatic - which may, of course, be part of the
prosecution strategy, after our more flamboyant duo, Horst Mahler and
Sylvia Stolz, were "legally" hatcheted and brutally dismissed.
What we are getting now is traditional "Paragraph 130" fare - that
is, an almost pathological avoidance of substance. Sometimes I
really wonder: Why even carry on? Why not let things catch up with
our tormentors? After all, there are larger political panoramas to
observe than (non)testimony about a touted Holocaust that wasn't.
Time and again I get well-meant suggestions from readers: "Try this
strategy, that strategy. It's foolproof and airtight, believe me!"
Sure. In a fair, just world based on the majesty of law, sane
strategies would work. But in a country such as the "German"
Bundesrepublik that calls itself "democracy" while grinding more than
100,000 people through a controlled, hamstrung legal system for
"thought crimes", you might as well take a deep breath and spit
against the wind!
At any rate, here goes:
Report - July 23, 2006
The Zundel hearings are now caught in minutiae details that are
described by one of our supporters as "stink-langweilig" - stinkingly
boring. No doubt that is a telling prosecution strategy to avoid
touching on substantive matters while, at the same time, discouraging
attendance by Zundel supporters, many of whom come from great
distances at considerable effort and expense.
At this low-intensity hearing, there were only about 16 largely
elderly visitors present, but garnished by an equal number of macho
police. Can you imagine a greater absurdity? As if there is, or
ever has been, the slightest possibility of violence at any of the
Zundel trials!
But of course the show must go on! If villainy is lacking, why not
help out a bit - and suggest it might be lurking somewhere?
On this day, the attendees as well as the defense team were treated
to yet another BKA Kriminalkommissar, this one by name of
Stucki-Pinsdorf, a middle-aged woman whose task it was to sniff out
villainy in German language publications such as the monthly Zundel
letter "Germania", in print for almost twenty years. "Incriminating"
passages were read aloud, including revelations such as, for
instance, " only half of the recipients of "Germania" were in the
habit of contributing" toward the Zundel effort.
Compared to whom? To what?
In one of my statistics classes in college, I learned that a 2%
response to an average fundraising pitch is considered gratifying.
Toward the end of this amazing censor-scrutinizing exercise, two
confiscated recent Zundel letters were read aloud, whose content,
according to my source, "had nothing to do with the charges for which
Ernst Zundel is allegedly imprisoned." That's like a doctor checking
your ears or your toenails if he suspects your heart.
Defense attorney Dr. Schaller objected, but it was explained to him
that these specific passages might shed some light on the danger of
Holocaust Denial recidivism. Adds my source, bitterly: "All that
is needed now is to point out that this heretic regrets nothing!"
Meanwhile, thanks to more recent censorship activity, there are now
39 big, fat binders that hold the evidence of Mr. Zundel's heresy
misdeeds. There is no index for those binders, and those who wish to
find their way through reams of Zundel sins have a hard time, believe
me.
=====
Report of July 30, 2006
At this hearing there was again a mildly encouraging increase in the
number of Zundel supporters who rose to a man when Ernst appeared in
the courtroom, since applause is no longer allowed.
I had sent a set of my DVD documentary to the judge to facilitate a
comprehensive overview of Ernst's activism over the decades. Judge
Meinerzhagen apparently watched it. He announced that he had made
copies to give to the defense. (I had already supplied them a copy
each myself) Ernst did not receive his own copy, even though he is
the silent star of this grotesque show trial in the Stalinist mode,
and I had specifically asked that he be allowed to preview at leisure
what I had done, and that in a gesture of cooperation, if Dr.
Meinerzhagen would allow it, I would even send him a small pocket
player that ran on batteries. I am now waiting for a response, but
from all I can gather, I doubt I will see a green light.
Next, the judge announced that certain documents had, after all,
arrived in court - I am not sure which ones - even though it had been
claimed at first that those specific documents, which had been made
available to the BKA under a cover name were not available.
Apparently it wasn't all that hard to locate the government's snitch
by his real name and address.
Defense attorneys Bock and Rieger then asked if there had been sound
legal grounds for Ernst's deportation from Canada, and if it might
not have been possible for him to go to a broad-minded country where
Holocaust Denial was okay. This question, phrased as a verbal
motion, as I understand it, was curtly disallowed, even though it had
been proven - even admitted during previous hearing by the
prosecution - that the so-called "trial" in Canada had been a sham of
a disgraceful kind that had nothing to do with the most elementary
principles of justice.
No luck with this one, either. The court insisted that Ernst's
alleged contacts to the "White Supremacy Movement" had been the
reason for the Canadian deportation and not the Holy Holocaust, the
focus now in Germany. In other words, this ruling steals from Ernst
two years of his life that will NOT be counted against the expected
harsh sentence in Mannheim.
So this is the reality. After they kidnap you in the US to punish
you for decades worth of "Holocaust Denial", not yet a "crime" in
the US or Canada - they criminalize you first in Canada by
fabricating out of thinnest air an interim excuse so as to ship you
off to Germany where you must still do penance for "Holocaust Denial"
from scratch!
It was also requested by the defense to elicit a psychological Zundel
profile that would determine whether or not Ernst really believes in
the claims that he made, or whether he only likes to argue. This,
too, was rejected as irrelevant since, 1) the judge and his
co-judges/jurors are sure that they are capable of settling that
issue themselves, and 2), why should it even matter - it is enough
that Mr. Zundel practiced Holocaust Denial in publications like
"Germania" and doesn't even bother to deny or to retract it, adding
insult to injury.
Another BKA liaison, a man named Jürgen Maurer stationed in
Washington, D.C., was briefly on the witness stand as well. Even
though our defense team members have in their possession at least a
hundred copies of faxes and letters, all written by Irene, Ernst's
second wife of 15 months, who turned state's evidence in 1997 to
please the Wiesenthalers and B'nai Brith, not much was reported to me
about Maurer whose job had been to channel said letters to the
appropriate authorities in Germany. These letters, we may safely
assume, are now gracing the Mannheimer courtroom somewhere in those
39 aforementioned binders.
Writes my good internet reporter: "There seems to have been a closer
[than one might surmise] relationship [between Jürgen and Irene] whom
she described [in one of her letters] as "my favorite cop" - a phrase
which, mispronounced in court, sounded a bit salacious and triggered
merriment.
=====
Report of July 3, 2006
It was observed that, as Ernst Zundel entered the court room and his
supporters rose in unison to offer their respect, so did one of the
policemen! It's catching, folks! Oy vey!
Judge Meinerzhagen harkened back to two additional binders of Ernst's
"Germania" letters with the announced intent of wanting to understand
the mindset of the accused. Dr. Schaller objected, arguing that a
defendant's mindset was not a relevant terrain to scrutinize, but
that argument did him no good whatsoever. The judge disagreed.
Almost the rest of the hearing was taken up with arguments - by now
irrelevant since this matter has since been resolved in favor of
bilingualism - if Zundel ought to be writing only in German or not.
This led into biographical data - his three marriages, his two sons,
his two stepsons, his five siblings - what was the family proficiency
as far as languages in which to write one's letters?
Big problem to settle! His first wife spoke French and English, his
second wife only English, and his third wife - me! - English "and
very little German", even though I was born into a German-speaking
Mennonite family in the Ukraine and, via [Spanish-speaking] Paraguay,
ended up in Canada and then in the U.S. Ernst's sons speak only
English, his siblings only German. Such fascinating stuff!
Further, Ernst's 20-year-ban and a possible fine of up to $250,000
was mentioned, should he have the audacity to return to the US after
having "missed a meeting", as the US deportation papers claim. A
letter by our US-attorney, Bruce Leichty, was also read in court. It
did a better job - it detailed and traced the illegal arrest and
proved it to be what it was - an "extrajudicial rendition" or,
plainly, a brazen political abduction!
It was further kindly pointed out that the Zundelsite has links not
only to like-minded patriots but also to its enemies. That finished
off the day.
=====
What does Ernst think of it all? Of course, he is not allowed to
speak of court matters directly, or mention the Big H., or someone
will wash out his mouth with soap.
In a recent letter to me, he wrote this, referring to a comment I had
made that even former leftists, plain horrified by what is going on
in Germany, are switching over to our side in somewhat timid ways:
"That's how low-level terrorism works, by creating visible examples,
whipping boys. That's what our 'road kill/collateral damage" status
is already working.
Remember, I used to say, "There will be waves of arrests" - that they
would pick up people, seemingly at random, one at a time, making it
look innocuous, giving the excuses of not complying with bureaucratic
protocol - but now people can begin to see the emerging patterns.
There will be others, Ingrid.
Regarding the analysis of my/our situation by that leftist website -
they are on target but miss the point because, once again, they will
not utter the three letter word. ()
What's going on is only a milder, more sophisticated policy Lenin and
Stalin used with their purge trials of the 1930s. () Look at it
carefully. The words are more Orwellian, the tactics far more
sophisticated, less brazen - but look at our fate. You are exactly
like your mother was after they snatched your father and took him
away to Siberia. Of course you could squawk, put expensive ads in
the paper, visit congressmen, even go to court to seek relief, try to
sue our tormentors - with what result? You are still in your
mother's shoes, You are, in fact, like the millions of German women
who had to fend for themselves during the absence of their husbands
during the war - but since this is an undeclared war, you are even
robbed of public sympathy.
Had it not been for our list of friends and my decades of high
visibility, I would have been entombed alive much sooner. () Laws
and constitutions, to these people, mean nothing. They flaunt them
at will and with impunity in every country, even their own.
On July 20, there will be yet another hearing in Mannheim, 9:00 A.M.
sharp. Be there if possible. My cross-examination in 1997 by the
Canadian Justice Department attorneys regarding website ownership
will be the focus of that hearing, as well as a partial showing of my
Zundel DVD.
Therefore, come any, come all - the drama has barely begun!
Ingrid Zundel
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