Testing the Limits of Freedom of Speech: Ernst Zundel Speaks Out
An exclusive interview with one of Europe's most well-known political prisoners
by Kourosh Ziabari
April 30, 2010
Ernst Zundel is a German author and historian who has spent seven years of his life behind bars as a result of expressing his controversial viewpoints and opinions. He is a revisionist who has denied the Holocaust as described by most historians. He has been one of the most prominent political prisoners in Europe and has been jailed in three countries on two continents.
After his arrest in the U.S. in 2003, he was deported to Canada, where he was kept in prison as “a threat to the national security” for two years. After deportation to Germany in March 2005, he was convicted and sentenced in 2007 to five additional years of imprisonment on charges of holocaust denial. He was finally released on March 1, 2010.
This is the first interview Ernst Zundel has given since his release.
Firstly, I would like to extend my congratulations on your recent release. Were you ever mistreated or subject to any type of mental or physical punishment in breach of international conventions?
Ernst Zundel in a courtroom in Mannheim, Germany on November 8, 2005 (Michael Probst/AP)
My entire treatment these past seven years by those arresting me, trying and convicting me, and keeping me in prison has been in brutal breach of international conventions. I was arrested in broad daylight on American soil by officials of the U.S. government who acted as hit squads for a nefarious lobby. There was no arrest warrant. I was not read my rights. I was whisked away in handcuffs without being allowed to get my wallet, to call my attorney, to be allowed to make my case before an American Immigration Judge or even hug my wife goodbye.
I was incarcerated in six different prisons on two continents in three countries—the USA, Canada, and Germany—without relief of any kind. In effect, I have had 10 percent of my life stolen from me – and for what “crime”? For having “overstayed my U.S. visa”?
Throughout my imprisonment, basic human rights principles were trampled underfoot repeatedly and with impunity. The worst prisons were the Canadian detention centers at Thorold, Ontario and at Toronto West, where I was held for two long years in isolation cells, ice-cold in the winter, no shoes or socks allowed. The electric light in these cells, bright enough to be able to read, was kept on 24 hours a day. Through a glass slot in the door I was checked every 20 minutes, and my activities were meticulously noted by the guards: one sheet for every day. No dignity, no privacy. My toothbrush was kept in a plastic bin in a hall. I was not allowed to speak to other prisoners. Bed sheets were changed only after three months. No pillows. No chairs. When I wrote to my wife or to my attorneys, I had to sit on a makeshift pile of my court transcripts. No radio, no television, not even an electrical outlet to sharpen my pencils. No ball point pens, only pencil stubs, cut in half with a saw. No spoons, forks, or knives were permitted; only a white plastic spoon with a fork called a “spork” that had to be returned every time at the end of the meal. With very few exceptions when furtive guards showed me some kindness away from the surveillance cameras, I was treated as though I was the worst of criminals. That’s Canada for you, where I have lived and worked without a criminal record for more than 40 years.
It was somewhat better, but not much, in the United States. In Germany, it was quite a bit better in terms of the basic necessities, but personal mail was routinely withheld – 1,700 letters for up to five years – even after I forced a court to order that it be given to me. My so-called trial in Mannheim was a political show trial in the Stalinist mode in that my guilt was a foregone conclusion. I requested that exculpatory exhibits be allowed as validation for what I believed and had written and said. No meaningful defense was allowed. I could not put on record any forensic evidence, any historical documents, or even expert witnesses, That very request to be allowed to offer evidence was held to be a new offense of criminal behavior and could have resulted in new criminal charges – as were, in fact, lodged against my lawyers during that very trial who tried to overcome these restrictions.
Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian media correspondent, freelance journalist and the author of Book 7+1. He is a contributing writer for websites and magazines in the Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. He is a member of Stony Brook University Publications’ editorial team and Media Left magazine’s board of editors, as well as a contributing editor for Finland’s Award-winning Ovi Magazine. As a young Iranian journalist, he has been interviewed and quoted by several mainstream mediums, including BBC World Service, PBS Media Shift, the Media Line network, Deutsch Financial Times, L.A. Times and Sky News. He is a contributing writer of Tehran Times newspaper. His articles and interviews have been translated into numerous languages, including Spanish, Italian, German and Arabic. Contact him at kourosh@foreignpolicyjournal.com. Read more articles by Kourosh Ziabari.
(20 votes, average: 4.90 out of 5)
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Thank you very much for the interview with Ernst Zuendel. What a revelation,what a rotten world we live in presently !
I should like to express my highest esteem for such a courageous
man and wish him all the best for the future.
[...] http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/04/30/testing-the-limits-of-freedom-of-speech-ernst-zundel-... [...]
What sort of Truth is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?
I wish to express my outrage that the Holocaust, unlike any other historical event, is not subject to critical revisionist investigation. Furthermore I deplore the fact that many so-called democratic states have laws that criminalize public doubting of the Holocaust. It is my position that the veracity of Holocaust assertions should be determined in the marketplace of scholarly discourse and not in our legislatures bodies and courthouses.
Let’s End Thought Crimes in the Twenty-first Century!
THE CONTROVERSY THAT WON’T GO AWAY
NOW, THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HOLOCAUST DENIAL DEBATE at Amazon.com:
Debating The Holocaust: A New Look At Both Sides by Thomas Dalton
There was no budget.
There was no plan.
There was no extermination order from Hitler.
Preeminent Holocaust expert Raul Hilberg said:
“What began in 1941 was a process of destruction not planned in advance, not organized centrally by any agency. There was no blueprint and there was no budget for destructive measures. [These measures] were taken step by step, one step at a time. Thus came about not so much a plan being carried out, but an incredible meeting of minds, a consensus — mind reading by a far-flung bureaucracy.”
Is this really a comprehensible explanation?
Key camps have all but vanished. So too the human remains. Material evidence is astonishingly absent. The alleged gassing procedure has serious, unanswered questions. And the famous “six million” number has an amazing history.
Revisionists claim that the public has been seriously misled by traditional historians. Are they right?
In this remarkable, balanced book, the author skillfully reviews and compares “traditional” and “revisionist” views on the “The Holocaust.”
On one side is the traditional, orthodox view — six million Jewish casualties, gas chambers, cremation ovens, mass graves, and thousands of witnesses. On the other is the view of a small band of skeptical writers and researchers, often unfairly labeled “deniers,” who contend that the public has been gravely misled about this emotion-laden chapter of history.
The author establishes that the arguments and findings of revisionist scholars are substantive, and deserve serious consideration. He points out, for example, that even the eminent Jewish Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg acknowledged that there was no budget, plan or order by Hitler for a World War II program to exterminate Europe’s Jews.
This book is especially relevant right now, as “Holocaust deniers” are routinely and harshly punished for their “blasphemy,” and as growing numbers of people regard the standard, Hollywoodized “Holocaust” narrative with mounting suspicion and distrust.
The author of this book, who writes under the pen name of “Thomas Dalton,” is an American scholar who holds a doctoral degree from a major US university.
This is no peripheral debate between arcane views of some obscure aspect of twentieth century history. Instead, this is a clash with profound social-political implications regarding freedom of speech and press, the manipulation of public opinion, how our cultural life is shaped, and how power is wielded in our society.
This book is BANNED in 17 nations—
Amazon’s: Debating The Holocaust: A New Look At Both Sides by Thomas Dalton
IF WE COULD BE MISTAKEN ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST, WHAT ELSE COULD WE BE WRONG ABOUT?
Long live freedom of speech, whether or not it is still permitted in ZOG USA or the present-day German ZOG. Germany is still a militarily occupied country, so it is not really surprising that this happened to Mr. Zundel. The Germans know that they must kowtow to the USA and the Zionist Lobby.
Thank you for publishing this great interview.
Hail Victory, Hail Freedom!
Harrell Rhome, researcher and writer.
The aggressive tribe that call themselves “Jews” are masters of the art of creating smokescreens and don’t like to have their illusions exposed by people like Ernst Zundel. They are the main perpetrators of precisely those vices that they condemn, such as extreme racism.
As far as I have been able to establish, they are of Northern European ancestry and have retained the aggressiveness of their Viking ancestors, raiding, plundering and dominating wherever they go.
By any stretch of the imagination, they are not related to Semites at all.
That’s just another smokescreen.
Actually Gog & Magog, Japhetic – Ashkenaz – Khazar converts to Talmudic Judaism. See APFN.org message board. Links to Haaretz & Forward. The Children of Israel {caucasions/white people} have never been “Jewish”. “Jewish” is a satanic cult, a multi-generational satanic cult, from which many Khazar {mongolian mutants] are now THANKFULLY leaving..in droves…however the “Jewish/Zionazi ” MEDIA will not honestly report that fact….Truth prevails. Most s0-called “Jews” have been too frightened to examine the facts. {Thanks to the ADL} The internet – Zundel, Willie Martin, Pastor Peters and APFN have made serious gains towards TRUTH for all in the struggle for Peace and Dignity for the soul of man. See Ben Freedman Facts are Facts.
[...] by Kourosh Ziabari, Foreign Policy Journal [...]
I found this interview very interesting. I applaud your magazine for publishing this interview, but I find it very interesting you found it necessary to print the editors note “The views and beliefs of Ernst Zundel are his own, and not those of Foreign Policy Journal”. I would think that is obvious that when a person speaks he is expressing his own opinion and not someone elses. I think it demonstrates further what Mr. Zundel discussed in this interview, namely that your magazine might be severely criticized for publishing this article and who knows what other actions might be taken against the magazine.
I think I have seen your magazine in the magazine section of bookstores. After reading this interview I will take a closer look at your magazine in the future.
FPJ is not in print. I added the Editor’s note on account of Mr. Zundel’s question about the reason for publishing this interview. The point is while I don’t defend his views, I defend his right to express them.
What a fine man Mr.Zundel is.HIs story is hertbreaking,but also inspirational.The evil influence the Judiac philosophy has over the world is so massive,so all encompassing we, the enlightened even don’t realize it! Anywhere there s greed,decay,discrimination,lies,and judgment it is Judiac.When war is urged:a Jew,or there stooges are calling or it.The left-right game is Jewish,flag-waving,and flag burning.Democrat,and Republican.There are small flickers in this Zionist darkness.Forums like this,The American Free Press,The Barnes Review,The David rving Action Report,RENSE.COM,THE OCCIDENTAL. QUARTLY,Pat Buchanan,THE HOFFMAN REPORT.COM ADOLF THE GREAT.COM,and many others,but not untill all of the beautiful people of the earth,unite with racial and ethnic pride,and say no the them with oine voice,can our beautiful planet be free of there repression.
Thank you for publishing the interview with Mr.
Zundel and calling attention to the repression of
Revisionist scholars in the West.
It is a shame that the United States participated in
the arrest and deportation of Mr. Zundel for his comments
posted on a US based Website. It makes the United
States’ condemnation censorship by the People’s Republic of China
seem hypocritical.
For Free Speech and Honest History.