Ernst Zündel
| “ | For an event that was wholly created in the poisonous psychological warfare kitchens of the Second World War, run by the ministries of propaganda in many countries, not just by the British or the Americans, but also the Russians and undoubtedly the world Jewish organizations. | „ |
| ~ Ernst Zündel about The Holocaust. |
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel (24 April 1939 - 5 August 2017) was a German activist and member of the Alt-Right most notable for establishing Samisdat Publishers, a defunct publishing group that mostly published material associated with Holocaust denial such as Did Six Million Really Die? The Truth At Last by Richard Verrall, Web of Deceit by Malcolm Ross, A Straight Look at the Third Reich by Austin App, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Arthur Butz and many works by Zündel himself. He also campaigned to ban the film Schindler's List, which depicted Nazi atrocities, on the grounds of Hate Speech and was a supporter of fascist politician Adrien Arcand. He was targeted by Kahane Chai and the Jewish Defense League in 1995, as well as, for an unknown reason, the Animal Liberation Front. He died of a heart attack in 2017.
Trials in the 1980s edit
In 1983, Sabina Citron, a Holocaust survivor and founder of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association, filed a private complaint against Zündel before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. In 1984, the Ontario government joined the criminal proceedings against Zündel based on Citron's complaint. Zündel was charged under the Criminal Code of spreading false news by publishing Did Six Million Really Die? The Truth At Last.
Zündel's first trial took place in 1985, when he was charged with "publishing 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 testimony from several expert witnesses, such as Auschwitz survivor Arnold Friedman, Zündel was convicted, however his conviction was overturned on a technicality, leading to a second trial in 1988, during which he called Holocaust deniers David Irving and Fred A. Leuchter as defence witnesses, and was testified against by Holocaust expert Raul Hilberg, who debunked his Holocaust denial arguments. He was convicted again, but his conviction was later overturned by the Canadian Supreme Court in 1992 on the grounds that the prosecution violated his freedom of speech.
Imprisonment in Germany edit
After a warrant for his arrest was issued in Germany for incitement to hatred, Zündel attempted to seek refugee status in Canada, however he was instead deemed a threat to national security due to his links to Alt-Right figures such as Aryan Nations leaders Richard Girnt Butler and Terry Long, neo-Nazi Ewald Althans and German far-right politician Christian Worch and placed in detention. Despite campaigning from Alt-Right figures such as Paul Fromm and David Duke, Zündel was deported to Germany on 1 March 2005, where he was immediately arrested.
He was indicted on the grounds that he had "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." During the ensuing trial, 3 of Zundel's lawyers were removed from his defence team, one because he had been disbarred, one for acting as a puppet of the first and one for disrupting the trial. He was ultimately found guilty in 2007, his case not being helped by his lawyer's closing statement containing quotes from Mein Kampf, and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in 2010, and was banned from the United States soon after due to his conviction.