A Zundel letter to his wife, ethnic novelist Ingrid Rimland,
on the eve of the Third Great Holocaust Trial starting on Tuesday, November
8, in Mannheim - this time on European soil:
Meine liebe Ingrid -
This is the first benefit derived on 17 October 2005 from
the Oberlandesgericht / Karlsruhe decision that you and I as a married
couple can discuss our court cases and legal moves without having our
letters withheld or confiscated by the censors. The court specifically
states that you can quote things, like comments from supporters or
coverage in the media - excerpts of news that you deem are important to
me.
Please note, however: That does not mean that various
levels of the German government bureaucracy will not read and use the
content of our letters for their purposes. Should our mail still be
interfered with because of what we say to each other, I will instruct
[attorney] Rieger to go to the Bundesverfassungsgericht and, after that,
to the European Court of Human Rights in Straßburg.
The battle is on - even the Zundels have rights!
So, my brave wife, we are making history together! That's
nice!
This judgment is important for other imprisoned idealists
/ human rights activists - people who struggle for their human and civil
rights in Germany and beyond! So, Ingrid, it looks like your husband is
back at home! And as I promised you, and predicted from prison in Toronto,
the content of the struggle has not changed - only the geographical
location has expanded to the European front, for we will continue our
actions in Canada and America.
I take no pleasure in having to embarrass the German
judiciary, but a civil rights struggle in German was long overdue. As you
know, I prepared myself mentally and emotionally for exactly this scenario
for years. I denied myself many earthly pleasures for [decades] because I
did not want to be controlled by vices, cravings, desires, because those
human weaknesses are the most dangerous. They make people subject to
threats, manipulation, and intimidation by police, interrogators, and
courts.
I remember the utter frustration of Canada's most famous
criminal lawyer, Eddie Greenspan, when he tried to intervene on my behalf
for the Canadian Liberties Association in 1986-87. As you know, these
mainly Leftists, Marxists, and Zionists had criticized and bad-mouthed me
in the media for years. I explained to the Chief Justice that they were
late-comers and opportunists in the Human Rights struggle and that they
only came for the publicity because they knew I had a good chance and
would most likely win my appeal.
In utter frustration, Greenspan blurted out while I stood
three feet away from him in Ontario Superior Court and could see the
rivulets of sweat dripping down from his hair into his shirt collar:
"Chief Justice, we are at a loss as to what to do
with Zundel! He is not embarrassed by vilification in the media! Bad press
does not seem to trouble him! Jail and prison do not scare him, seemingly!
He does not care what society thinks of him! What else does one do to such
an individual?"
[Ingrid's comment: Kidnap him, maybe?]
Ingrid, that was long before we met! It's in my old
newsletters where I devoted a few pages to it. You would have been proud!
It was Pure Ernst Zundel Unbowed!
Chief Justice Howland seemed to enjoy this "odd
couple" before him - the famous Jewish lawyer and the infamous German
Human Rights advocate for his German people - and guess what? He ruled for
me, and against them! The rest is history!
As you know, we won that important appeal - mit Pauken und
Trompeten [with drums and trumpets] and a 134 page judgement in our favor,
devastating in his critique of Judge Locke and his courtroom conduct. The
government appealed it to the Supreme Court of Canada, and I gave that
famous interview on the 6th (?) of June 1987, in which I reached out to
the Jewish community and suggested we call a symposium on the Holocaust
issues in Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens Sports Arena. I offered to pay half
the fee and pay for my experts - historians, eye witnesses etc. I offered
three well-known Jewish personalities to chair this historic event. They
turned me down. [One of them said]: "Ernst, this is too hot a potato
for me to handle!"
I prophesied to the assembled media people on that
historic day that I would send a team to Auschwitz to make investigations
and take samples. Ingrid, I did not know then that Fred Leuchter existed,
but the idea was there.
I told them I would fight "the mother of all
trials" if they re-charged me, and finish that topic once and for
all! In their hatred and power-drunkenness, they were blind - and walked
into not only "the mother of all trials" but a 20-year battle of
attrition, which is still going on!
And I am afraid, Ingrid, that my detractors here are as
blind to the historical mine field they are entering. History is repeating
itself! They are blinded by the tactical victories inside the court rooms
where they control the outcome. For an ordinary accused, that set-up is
disastrous. For us idealists, it's a mere inconvenience to be endured.
It's the Greenspan scenario all over again!
