Summary of the last three hearing days in the Zundel Holocaust Heresy Trial

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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, "Š 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 myselfŠ)  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.  (Š)

What's going on is only a milder, more sophisticated policy Lenin and 
Stalin used with their purge trials of the 1930s.  (Š)  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.  (Š) 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