Antiochus Epiphanes
July 21st, 2005, 09:51 PM
from Paul Fromm
Zundel Charged With "Hate" In Germany
Dear Free Speech Supporter:
Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from a Canadian Press reporter seeking my reaction as one of German publisher Ernst Zundel’s Canadian supporters to news that the German government had charged him with inciting “hate” for questioning the Hollywood version of World War II.
I told the reporter that I thought the charges marked a sad day in German history. One of the results of the Allied victory in WW II was to install a government dedicated to democracy in Germany. Ernst Zundel has often spoken contemptuously of the German government that he calls “the vassal state” – as it was installed by the Allies at the end of a war where there was never a peace treaty signed with the defeated German state. “Sixty years later, what sort of democracy do you have where people are jailed for speaking out for their political views?”
I suggested that Germany, a proud and cultured nation, was acting like some mediaeval backwater where thinkers, like Galileo who questioned the accepted wisdom (superstition) of the day, were tortured of jailed. “It’s demeaning,” I said.
The unseemly delay in charging Mr. Zundel and either releasing him or bringing his case to a speedy conclusion seems part and parcel of the judicial abuse to which he’s been subjected in Canada and the U.S. as well. Germany wanted the Revisionist publisher extradited on an outstanding warrant. That meant they had charges prepared. Yet, he was held in “investigative detention” and incarceration for over four months – March 2 to July 19, while the system toyed with him.
The reporter, somewhat oddly, asked me what I thought the Canadian government should do in Mr. Zundel’s case. “Frankly, they’ll do nothing,” I replied. “He’s a German citizen. They’ll see his case as a German matter,” I added.
“Besides, they’ve already done their worse. By deporting him as a ‘terrorist’ and ‘threat to national security,’ the Canadian government has demeaned the term and shown how confused and lost it is. At a time, when human flesh and bones are splattered over the walls of London subway stations by real terrorists, the Canadian government labels a lifelong pacifist with controversial ideas a ‘terrorist.’ But perhaps that not so surprising, when this is the same government about to change the definition of marriage from a man and a woman, which has served our civilization for nearly 3,000 years, to now include Bruce buggering Barry on a permanent basis.”
Paul Fromm
Director CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
Zundel Charged With "Hate" In Germany
Dear Free Speech Supporter:
Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from a Canadian Press reporter seeking my reaction as one of German publisher Ernst Zundel’s Canadian supporters to news that the German government had charged him with inciting “hate” for questioning the Hollywood version of World War II.
I told the reporter that I thought the charges marked a sad day in German history. One of the results of the Allied victory in WW II was to install a government dedicated to democracy in Germany. Ernst Zundel has often spoken contemptuously of the German government that he calls “the vassal state” – as it was installed by the Allies at the end of a war where there was never a peace treaty signed with the defeated German state. “Sixty years later, what sort of democracy do you have where people are jailed for speaking out for their political views?”
I suggested that Germany, a proud and cultured nation, was acting like some mediaeval backwater where thinkers, like Galileo who questioned the accepted wisdom (superstition) of the day, were tortured of jailed. “It’s demeaning,” I said.
The unseemly delay in charging Mr. Zundel and either releasing him or bringing his case to a speedy conclusion seems part and parcel of the judicial abuse to which he’s been subjected in Canada and the U.S. as well. Germany wanted the Revisionist publisher extradited on an outstanding warrant. That meant they had charges prepared. Yet, he was held in “investigative detention” and incarceration for over four months – March 2 to July 19, while the system toyed with him.
The reporter, somewhat oddly, asked me what I thought the Canadian government should do in Mr. Zundel’s case. “Frankly, they’ll do nothing,” I replied. “He’s a German citizen. They’ll see his case as a German matter,” I added.
“Besides, they’ve already done their worse. By deporting him as a ‘terrorist’ and ‘threat to national security,’ the Canadian government has demeaned the term and shown how confused and lost it is. At a time, when human flesh and bones are splattered over the walls of London subway stations by real terrorists, the Canadian government labels a lifelong pacifist with controversial ideas a ‘terrorist.’ But perhaps that not so surprising, when this is the same government about to change the definition of marriage from a man and a woman, which has served our civilization for nearly 3,000 years, to now include Bruce buggering Barry on a permanent basis.”
Paul Fromm
Director CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION