The Holocaust Historiography Project

A court in Mannheim, Germany today sentenced Holocaust revisionist Ernst Zundel to five years in prison on 14 counts of thought crimes. Zundel has already been in custody for more than two years, first in the U.S., then in Canada, and -- since March 2005 -- in Germany. As in the U.S. and Canada, the German judge sentenced Zundel on the pretext that he is a threat to national and international security. In other words, the security of every nation on the planet is based on a hoax; revelations about this hoax through freedom of speech and thought will destroy that security and presumably lead to bloodshed and destruction of the world as we know it.

If this is true, how safe can any of us be? Each of us walks a thin line: On one hand, we too might be adjudged to be a threat to international security and jailed. On the other hand, our security is guaranteed only by continued lies -- any truth might result in our destruction.

Labels: Ernst Zundel, persecution

Vienna's highest court has ruled that controversial British author David Irving can be released from jail. The court granted the historian's appeal against his three-year sentence and ruled that he could serve out the remainder of his term on probation. The court rejected calls by the prosecution that his sentence be increased. Instead it reduced his sentence from three to two years, with one of those years to be served on probation. As he has been in jail since his arrest in November 2005, the ruling means he can be released from prison immediately.

Labels: David Irving, persecution

French President Jacques Chirac has ordered a probe into revisionist comments made by the French scholar Robert Faurisson at an Iranian conference on the Holocaust this week. Chirac has asked Justice Minister Pascal Clement to open a preliminary investigation into the comments made by Faurisson, a retired literature professor well-known for his revisionist views.

Labels: conferences, persecution, Robert Faurisson

German revisionist Germar Rudolf will appear Tuesday in the state court in Mannheim, accused of 'denying the Holocaust' since 1997 via documents and on the Internet. 'Denying the Holocaust' is a crime in Germany, where it carries a maximum sentence of five years. U.S. authorities arrested Rudolf in 2005 when he appeared at an immigration office in Chicago to apply for a green card based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen.

Labels: persecution

The deputy leader of France’s National Front (FN) party, Bruno Gollnisch, went on trial Tuesday for "disputing crimes against humanity" over comments he made two years ago on the Holocaust. Gollnisch, 56, who is a member of the European parliament, faces a possible year in jail if he is found guilty after two days of hearings. In October 2004 Gollnisch said at a press conference that he did not "question the deportations (nor) the hundreds of thousands, the millions of dead ... As for the way they died, there has to be debate." He went on: "I do not deny the existence of deadly gas chambers. But I am not a specialist on this, and I think we should leave historians to discuss it. And this discussion should be free."

Labels: persecution

by Robert Faurisson

In a note bearing today's date, G. Theil, recalling another, earlier conviction, estimates the sum total of his financial penalties and costs at €130,000.

G. Theil's postal address: BP 50-38, F-38037 GRENOBLE CEDEX 2 (France)

Labels: Georges Theil, persecution

by Robert Faurisson

In France, repression of revisionism is increasing.

On March 3, 2006 Georges Theil, 65, a retired telecommunications engineer, had his conviction for "Holocaust denial" upheld by the court of appeal of Limoges. He was guilty of sending, in a period running from April to June 2004, a booklet of his own revisionist writings to just a small number of persons in that region, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment without remission and a fine of €30,000, ordered to pay €9,300 in damages, and hit with still other sanctions as well.

Yesterday, May 17, in Lyon the same Georges Theil was convicted on appeal for having made a brief revisionist statement on October 14, 2004 in front of a local television journalist's camera, and sentenced to a new six-month prison term without remission, fined another €10,000, and ordered to pay €40,500 in damages as well as to cover the costs of having the judgment published in two newspapers (probably as much as €8,000).

The offender has lodged a petition concerning the first case with the superior court of appeal in Paris, and is going to do the same for the second. If he fails there, he will, in principle, have to go to prison. In the first case, he has already paid out €39,300, and even a bit more. In the second case, he is going to have to pay out €50,500, not counting the legal publication fees. Some organisations have reacted with lightning speed: this very morning, by faxes sent to Georges Theil's solicitor, they were demanding their pound of flesh.

In addition to these financial penalties it is appropriate to note, for the six proceedings involved (trials, first appeals, final appeals), the lawyer's fees and other costs amounting to substantial sums.

As for the French media, they either pass these convictions over in silence or say they are glad of them.

On January 15 of this year, Georges Theil had sent out a plea for support to the 45 French intellectuals who were ostentatiously demanding, in the name of freedom of historical research and freedom of expression, repeal of the laws hindering those freedoms. Only two intellectuals answered him: one, Edgar Morin, who is Jewish, told him he could not help in any way because he had himself been found guilty of "racial defamation" (he had, to the mind of the Paris court of appeal, too strongly criticised Israeli policy!); the other, professor René Rémond, a Catholic and a shabbos goy, wrote back curtly expressing his refusal to come to Theil's aid.

Labels: Georges Theil, persecution

French revisionist Robert Faurisson's most recent trial is scheduled for Tuesday, July 11, in the XVIIth chamber of the Paris criminal court (2, 4 Boulevard du Palais; nearest underground station: "Cité") at 1.30 p.m. Faurisson is accused of having granted, last year, an interview of revisionist nature to the Iranian radio and television station Sahar, in the context of a telephone conversation with a Teheran journalist who had called him. Because the satellite channel Sahar's broadcasts can be picked up in France, France's Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), headed by Dominique Baudis, filed charges against him with the public prosecutor's office in Paris.

Labels: persecution, Robert Faurisson

Revisionist Siegfried Verbeke has been released from prison after spending nine months in prison and paying a 1,000 euro fine. His passport has been confiscated and he is restricted to living either in Belgium or Germany.

Labels: persecution, Siegfried Verbeke

Writing in The Christian Science Monitor, Brendan O'Neill calls for freedom of speech for David Irving in Europe. This is noteworthy, given the CSM's historically anti-German leanings.

Labels: David Irving, persecution

Germar Rudolf and his wife go to the Chicago office of the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) for a marriage interview. It goes well and ends with the INS certifying that their marriage is real. As they are about to leave, however, two officers of the INS appear and claim that Germar had been sent a letter instructing him to appear at their Chicago office for photographing and fingerprinting, and that he has not complied. Neither Germar nor his lawyer received such a letter, and they have not been shown a copy of it. The failure to appear would not in itself have brought any drastic action; in fact, the INS had had him photographed and fingerprinted long ago at the FBI office in Huntsville, AL. What exacerbates the situation is that recently the German government has made its second request for his extradition and some clerk at the INS, assuming the matter involved a real criminal case, flagged his file. In any case, Germar is detained and sent to a jail about 50 miles from Chicago.

Labels: Germar Rudolf, persecution

Ernst Zundel appeared in a German court today for his arraignment on the charge of denying the Holocaust. Denying the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany. If Zundel is found guilty of inciting hatred, he could face up to five years in jail. Last week, politically-correct Canadian Federal Court Justice Pierre Blais created the pretext for deporting Zundel by ruling that Zundel had links to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. "Mr. Zundel's activities are not only a threat to Canada's national security but also a threat to the international community of nations," Blais said in justifying his improper ruling.

Labels: Ernst Zundel, persecution

Canada Tuesday deported Holocaust denier and former Tennessee resident Ernst Zundel to his native Germany. Once there, he is expected to be arrested on charges of inciting hatred via the Internet. German officials have said he would be arrested for decades of anti-Semitic activities, including repeated denials of the Holocaust, which is a crime in Germany.

Labels: Ernst Zundel, persecution

Ernst Zundel has abandoned his fight to stay in Canada and is slated to be deported to Germany as early as Tuesday, his lawyer said yesterday. In a bitter denunciation of the Canadian legal system, lawyer Peter Lindsay said there was no point in trying to remedy the "horrible unfairness" to which Zundel had been subjected.

Labels: Ernst Zundel, persecution