Ernst Zündel
Ernst Zündel (Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel, nor Zundel; pseudonym Christof Friedrich, born April 24, 1939 in Calmbach Württemberg ) is a German Holocaust denier. He also published writings under the pseudonym Christof Friedrich.
Life
Zündel emigrated 19 years old to Canada, ostensibly to escape military service. In the 1960s, he became a follower of the Canadian Nazi Adrien Arcand. In the 1970 Zündel met various international Holocaust deniers, including Thies Christophersen, whose publication The Auschwitz Lie, he translated into English and distributed.
In 1976, Zündel the samizdat publishing house in Toronto. With the help of donations he spread numerous holocaustleugnende, and published at irregular intervals, the " Germania -Newsletter ". In the 1980s, Ernst Zündel did mainly produced with the production of video films with which he pursued propaganda. Among other things, the indexed in Germany Video film A German and a Jew arose in the aftermath investigate Auschwitz, in which Zündel with David Cole, a young man of Jewish descent, wanders through the concentration camp Auschwitz I and the audience points out which parts of the historical account of the Holocaust in his view, can not vote. In the following a trial against him in Canada and rotated in Germany also indexed video The consequences of the Auschwitz lie for Ernst Zündel he had himself portrayed and used it the opportunity to redistribute holocaustleugnende allegations.
From 1990, Zündel rented airtime from a U.S. shortwave stations and spread his holocaust -denying and anti-Semitic views worldwide in German language. During this time he who was then leading neo-Nazi Bela Ewald Althans served as a liaison person in Germany.
Against Zündel several processes have been strained because of his holocaust -denying activities in Canada. In the process of in Toronto in 1988 came as a witness for him to, among other things JG Burg, David Irving and Fred A. Leuchter. Leuchter, who traveled on this occasion to Auschwitz and Majdanek to perform there studies in various gas chambers, but could not strengthen the position Zundel in the process and had to grant the professional title of Engineer in Canada to lead to injustice.
Since 1994, Zündel is represented by its own, the Holocaust-denying website on the Internet. Because Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Canada, the page is maintained by the United States by Zundel's wife Ingrid Rimland Zündel. His run on the website emblem corresponds to color and structure of the swastika flag, instead of the Cross is a stylized Z is embedded in a white circle.
In 1995 there was an arson attack on Zundel's residence in Toronto, which caused a loss of $ 400,000. A group called "Jewish Armed Resistance Movement " confessed to the attack. According to the Canadian newspaper Toronto Sun the group had contacts with the Jewish Defense League and Kahane Chai to. Meir Weinstein, the leader of the JDL in Toronto, denied involvement in the attack, but was five days later, even caught together with the U.S. JDL leader Irv Rubin while trying to break into Zündel and therefore arrested by the police.
On 5 February 2003, Zündel was arrested in the U.S. for violating the American immigration laws and deported on 19 February 2003 to Canada, although its resident status in Canada had expired. He was trying to get refugee status in Canada to avoid extradition to Germany. When the prosecutor Mannheim since 2003, an arrest warrant was present on suspicion of incitement against him.
Extradition, detention and court proceedings
On 24 February 2005, the Canadian Justice approved the extradition Zundel to Germany and ordered his deportation. The reason given was, Zündel constitutes a danger to the national security of Canada dar. In his decision, the judge Zündel described as hypocritical racists who tried to give himself a pacifist image in order to spread its extremist and anti-Semitic views can. The process to make the deportation Zundel was controversial in Canada, since otherwise provided only against terrorists " Security Certificate " method was applied, in which neither the accused nor his get back the charges brought against him evidence at all to see. On 1 March 2005 he was flown to Frankfurt am Main, arrested there and transferred to detention in the JVA Mannheim.
The Mannheim prosecutor brought on 19 July 2005 against him before the District Court for systematic denial of the Nazi genocide of the Jews through the dissemination of writings and Internet services as well as sedition in 14 cases by anti -Semitic incitement.
The first day of the trial took place on 8 November 2005 and ended with the a scandal before it came to the reading of the indictment: The presiding judge withdrew from the election defender Sylvia Stolz 's mandate, as they may be made due to their submissions in defense of Scripture itself of sedition punishable have. Furthermore, the body designated as "Assistant" Horst Mahler was excluded from the proceedings, as against him consisted prohibition and its involvement in the process was therefore punishable. The defense responded to the judge with a motion for bias, which also failed on 15 November 2005 as the request of the defense, the public be excluded from the process.
The process was suspended until a new public defender was found. The arrest warrant against Zündel remained. The second trial began took place on 9 February 2006. Pride would now be able to return as a choice defender in Zundel's team. This consisted, among others, from the two already convicted for sedition lawyers Jürgen Rieger and Ludwig Bock, and from Herbert Schaller, who later participated in the so-called " Holocaust Conference " in Tehran. On 31 March 2006, the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe ruled out Zündel defender Sylvia Stolz from the procedure, as these abused its defensive role, the process is " process- foreign behavior " sabotaged " partially discharged punishable Nazi content ," despite talk prohibition by the chairman statements have; the exclusion was later confirmed by the Federal Court. The exclusion of designated experts in criminal law as a first in the history of German law. Pride was sentenced on January 14, 2008 by the Mannheim Regional Court on charges of incitement to three and a half years in prison; also a five-year employment ban was pronounced against them.
In its judgment delivered on February 15, 2007 verdict, the chamber followed the request of prosecutors and sentenced Zündel sedition, insulting and reviling the memory of the deceased to five years in prison. Zündel's defense lawyers had demanded acquittal. His lawyers appealed against the judgment revision that on 12 September 2007 by the Federal ( AZ.: 1 StR 337/ 07) was discarded. Then, the defense announced to submit a constitutional complaint. On March 1, 2010, Zündel was released from prison after serving his sentence in the prison of Mannheim.