- MANNHEIM, Germany - The long
awaited trial of Holocaust heretic Ernst Zündel, which began here
in a dismal fortress-like concrete courthouse on November 8, offers only
the slightest appearance of modern jurisprudence.
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- More than anything else, what occurred during the first
day of the Zündel trial was reminiscent of the heresy trial of Martin
Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, which was held in the
nearby town of Worms in 1521.
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- Like Luther, Zündel is on trial for his heretical
writings and beliefs. While Luther was tried by Emperor Charles the Fifth,
484 years ago, at the Diet of Worms for heresy because of his denial of
Roman Catholic doctrine, the charges against Zündel amount to modern
day heresy for holding opinions contrary to the state-supported dogma of
the Jewish Holocaust.
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- The Holocaust has, in effect, become the state church
in Germany and other European nations. While there is no protection of
traditional church doctrine, it is punishable by law in Germany, and other
European states, to even question the Zionist version of the Holocaust,
an historical event which allegedly occurred in Europe 60-65 years ago.
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- "The Zionists want to impose the religion of the
alleged 'Holocaust' of the Jews on the whole world," the renowned
French Holocaust heretic Robert Faurisson said in an interview on November
2. "It is normal that Jews and Zionists should seek to foist such
an imposture on us, for it is the sword and the shield of the Jews in general
and of the Jewish State in particular."
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- "The Jews' power stems directly from the Western
world's near-total belief in the phenomenal lie of the 'Holocaust,"
Faurisson said. "You needn't look any further.
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- "The Jews do not tolerate any questioning of the
'Holocaust,'" Faurisson told the Mehr News Agency of Iran. "Against
the revisionists they use physical violence and judicial repression because,
on the level of historical and scientific argumentation, they have been
defeated hands down by the revisionists. We have been able to expose their
lies, one by one. Therefore Jews and Zionists seek refuge in violence and
intimidation. They treat revisionists like Palestinians."
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- The first day of the Zündel trial did indeed resemble
an Israeli court judging a Palestinian. The court was adjourned before
the charges against Zündel could even be read. Presiding Judge Ulrich
Meinerzhagen and state prosecutor Andreas Grossmann appeared to have come
prepared with one strategy in mind: to dismiss Zündel's powerful defense
team and replace it with a malleable court-appointed attorney.
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- After reading a 7-page litany of complaints against Zündel
and his legal counsel Horst Mahler, Meinerzhagen ordered Mahler to leave
the defense team's table on grounds that he is no longer permitted to practice
law in Germany. Mahler was disbarred in March 2004 for holding unlawful
opinions about the Holocaust.
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- Judge Meinerzhagen threatened to have Mahler thrown into
jail if he did not leave the table.
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- Finally, at 11:09 a.m., surrounded by three green-clad
policemen, and heeding the suggestion of defense team member Dr. Herbert
Schaller of Austria, Mahler left the defense table and took a seat in the
first row of public seating.
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- The courtroom was packed with some 130 supporters of
Zündel and members of the press. As defense attorneys Sylvia Stolz
and Jürgen Rieger protested the court's bias and abuse of power there
were several rounds of applause that caused Meinerzhagen to completely
lose his composure.
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- Stolz stood her ground and insisted that Mahler was her
assistant. Meinerzhagen then dismissed her of her duties although she is
Zündel's state-appointed public defender. At this point, Jürgen
Rieger applied for a Gefangenheitsantrag, a motion requesting the judge
to recuse himself for obvious bias against Mahler and Stolz.
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- Thr Gefangenheitsantrag petition will be considered by
the Mannheim district court and the decision handed down on November 15.
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- Rieger told the court that its actions threatening the
Zündel defense team were worse than those of the Soviet Gulag system.
Rieger said that the defense lawyers were threatened that if they presented
evidence they would be punished.
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- "Little Germany is the most oppressive country in
Europe," Rieger said later when asked by American Free Press about
his comparison with the Soviet court system.
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- "It is like the Middle Ages when witches were burned
at the stake," he said. "Only today we don't burn Holocaust heretics
- we just throw them in jail."
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- Zündel has spent more than two and a half years
in jail waiting for his trial since he was arrested in his home in Tennessee
on February 5, 2003. Two weeks later he was deported to Canada, where he
has held permanent resident status, and there he spent the next two years
in solitary confinement in the Toronto West Detention Centre, on the pretext
that he was a threat to national security. Zündel is married to Ingrid
Rimland, an American citizen.
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- This reporter sat directly in front of the judge in the
first row and could see that he seemed seething with anger and suffering
from undue stress. Prosecutor Grossmann, sitting across from Zündel
and his four lawyers, spent much of the time examining and chewing his
nails.
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- In the court of Meinerzhagen and Grossmann, who both
appear to be devoted disciples of the Holocaust, it appears highly unlikely
that any evidence will be presented that will challenge the state-supported
Holocaust doctrine.
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- This is because a German law, Paragraph 130 of the penal
code, prevents any public discussion that questions the veracity of the
accepted version of the Holocaust, which is itself not at all clear. For
this reason, there appear to be two options: to have an open trial in which
no evidence is heard or to have a secret trial in which the evidence is
not made public.
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- "WE CAN ONLY WIN"
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- Zündel and his defense team were beaming as the
court adjourned until November 15. At an open press conference at Mannheim's
Hotel Wartburg, the defense team took questions and explained their position
in English and German.
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- "We can only win," Mahler said, adding that
there will either be an open trial or a closed trial with evidence.
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- Rieger said the court can "kick us out," referring
to the defense team. This is certainly what the judge seems to be trying
to do.
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- Stolz, who is being advised by Mahler, said the court
has only two possibilities. The first option would be for the court to
dismiss the defense petition to close the court and hear evidence, in which
case the court would stay open and the defense would request evidence to
be presented. This would expose the "ridiculous" predicament
the German law presents for the court, Stolz said.
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- The second option is that the judge would decide to lock
out the press and the public and the Zündel trial would become a secret
trial in which evidence could be presented.
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- American Free Press was the only press outlet that attended
the defense team's conference. The rest of the press had already gone home
to file critical stories meant to minimize the importance of the trial
and marginalize Zündel's supporters.
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- The Bild tabloid, the semi-pornographic propaganda outlet
of Axel Springer which was heavily funded by the CIA in the 1940's, for
example, in a very limited article tried to discredit Zündel's many
supporters by describing them as being foreigners or Germans who were outlandishly
dressed in traditional clothes.
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- As the crowd of supporters waited to pass the security
check point outside the courtroom, an unidentified young man with a Jewish
skull cap repeatedly filmed the crowd. Photographed and asked by AFP who
he was filming for, the camera man would only say "no comment,"
but said he was Israeli.
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- Later, he and another skull-cap clad man who had been
in the court room attended the press conference with what appeared to be
a group of local supporters of Zündel. However, why this group would
put up such a charade and film the crowd of supporters is not at all clear.
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- Finis
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