BanksyPalestineBarrier

The Greatest Dissident of Our Time

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This film is about Ernst Zundel, in my view, the greatest dissident of our time.

While Noam Chomsky was in MIT complaining that he wasn’t getting enough op-ed pieces in the New York Times, Ernst Zundel was defending the indefensible in a Toronto courthouse and clearing the rubble in his firebombed house. While Aung San Suu Kyi was giving press conferences to a breathlessly waiting world, Ernst Zundel was serving five years in a German prison. Truth is, it’s one thing to be a feted and admired Nelson Mandela, it’s quite another to be an isolated and despised Ernst Zundel.

But why his struggle is so important? Leaving aside the shining example of his courage, there is also the question of his message. The Holocaust not only defames the German people, it also defames pretty well everyone. I’m going to quote myself:

“The German and Austrian peoples who, we are told, conceived and perpetrated the slaughter; the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Rumanian, Hungarian, peoples etc., etc who supposedly hosted, assisted in and cheered on the slaughter ; the Americans, the British, the French, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Italians (but not the Danes and the Bulgarians) etc. who apparently didn’t do enough to stop the slaughter; the Swiss who earned out of the slaughter and the entire Christian world who, it seems, created the faith-traditions and ideologies in which the slaughter could take place – and now the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim peoples who seemingly want to perpetrate a new slaughter – in fact, the Holocaust oppresses the entire non-Jewish world and indeed much of the Jewish world as well.”

And not only that, it legitimizes the assaults on Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran, Wall Street, Harry’s Place - you name it.  So there you go.

I’d read about Ernst and I’d written about him but it was only two years ago that I met him. He was soft-spoken, kind and gentle but every so often you could see the flash of steel. He’d just been released from prison and was engaged in rebuilding his ancestral home. It’s a peasant’s house in the Black Forest, in the  heart of Germany – been there for two-hundred and fifty years - and it had housed his woodcutter father, his large family and the young Ernst. Never have I seen an edifice so rooted in the land. Like Ernst himself, it seemed to grow out of the soil.

Anyway, here’s the first episode of the film. It was made by Ernst’s wife, soul-mate and fellow struggler, Ingrid. Watch it and then watch the other episodes.

Episodes 2-7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF__YtMncVY&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE7CMSMRjbw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2m7IlVpB6Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=F-IvCS40gyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UQc0xHY-KA&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67HfJ7H-KZg&feature=related

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43 replies to this post

  1. Thanks, Paul. I had never watched him before or read anything much about him before I read some of your posts earlier this year. He is described by wikipedia as a “pamphleteer”… His courage was phenomenal. Canada is definitely a country where freedom of speech is dead like many other countries in Europe too, to say nothing of Germany.

  2. What I left out of my introduction is why his struggle is so important. Leaving aside the shining example of his courage, there is also the question of his message.

    The Holocaust not only defames the German people, it also defames many others. I’m going to quote myself:

    “The German and Austrian peoples who, we are told, conceived and perpetrated the slaughter; the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Rumanian, Hungarian, peoples etc., etc who supposedly hosted, assisted in and cheered on the slaughter ; the Americans, the British, the French, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Italians (but not the Danes and the Bulgarians) etc. who apparently didn’t do enough to stop the slaughter; the Swiss who earned out of the slaughter and the entire Christian world who, it seems, created the faith-traditions and ideologies in which the slaughter could take place – and now the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim peoples who seemingly want to perpetrate a new slaughter – in fact, the Holocaust oppresses the entire non-Jewish world and indeed much of the Jewish world as well.”

  3. Actually Mr Rein Blite, when I met Ernst he was amazingly positive about Jews. He really admires them.

    I do too, in my own way. I just wish they would direct their considerable talents to something more constructive and generally tone it down a bit.

    What do you say?

    • “Actually Mr Rein Blite”

      ‘Rein Blite’ is yet another incarnation of a poster who has been banned. He will thus not be able to reply.

      It seems he may have been wrong on one thing though. He claimed that Zundel was the author of ‘The Hitler We Loved and Why. Yet according to jrbooksonline Eric Thomson wrote the text and Zundel supplied the pictures.

      Are they correct?

      • Dear Moderator,

        They are correct but so what? Zundel, who was born too late to have known much of Hitler, believes that Hitler is of a time long gone and has little relevance today,

        However, he also knows that Hitler was loved by millions of Germans as few have been before him (they weren’t all evil, mad or mesmerised) and, as such, is worthy of some regard. So he asks that Hitler be judged to the same criteria as any other comparable figure – Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, Napoleon etc etc – no more, no less.

        Regarding Mr Rein Blite, I say let him stay awhile. He may be just abusive but, on the other hand, he may have something to say – and, if he is just abusive, well, you can always get rid of him then.

        • “Regarding Mr Rein Blite, I say let him stay awhile. He may be just abusive but, on the other hand, he may have something to say – and, if he is just abusive, well, you can always get rid of him then.”

          He was allowed to stay under at least two previous nicknames, and despite warnings he continued with personalised attacks. He added nothing of value to the site.

          He is banned and all posts by him will be hidden.

  4. it would be funny if the latest electronic incarnation of inert bile was actually a practical joke by me or some other deLiberation wit.

    probably not though.

    however if not, then whoever operated from behind that mask does not respect the basic rule of internet etiquette – if someone informs you that your contribution is not considered useful, then you piss off, maybe with one grandiloquent parting diatribe. such swan songs should be ruled kosher – they might become valuable collectors’ items one day.

    why is Roy Bard singled out here? if Zundel is a warmongering monster, then why shouldn’t anyone else here be threatened with disavowal by inert bile?

    if swan songs are kosher, zundels, it would appear, remain absolutely herem. but this is worse than absurd.

    if Zundel is a paranoid, hate-filled, warmonger, who loathes semitic people, he should be invited to a small rogue state in the Middle East, and be feted there. he could be allowed to take out his anti-semitic sentiments by participating in oppressing the indigenous people who used to dwell on the lands stolen by the rogue state.

    his vile, bloodthirsty rhetoric, and commitment to murder as an instrument of foreign policy, his habit of hiring the most ruthless thugs in the market as mercenaries, would make him an ideal citizen of that rogue state. his carefree jackboot could at last experience the indescribable pleasure of participating in the demolition of a Palestinian village to make way for a new settler enclave, armed to the teeth, and bristling with paranoia.

    if Zundel loved Hitler, then he must simply adore Netanyahu, Olmert, Begin, Peres, Sharon,…let Zundel move to Israel – it’s clearly where he belongs.

    • if Zundel loved Hitler, then he must simply adore Netanyahu, Olmert, Begin, Peres, Sharon,…let Zundel move to Israel – it’s clearly where he belongs.>

      I hopes this is satire because you are promoting fallacies encourages the continuation of ignorance, propaganda and false assumptions.

      It seems clear and especially because of the work of Zundel and David Irving that there needs to be a reexamination of the 1930′s and the role of National Socialism. It seems to me that those who don’t want the truth to be known are the ones who engage in misstating the facts and personal attacks.

      What is clear is that Israel and Netanyahu are doing nothing in the form of addressing usury and the level of public works like Hitler did to revitalize the German economy. The work of Zundel and David Irving has brought truthful historical context to the 1930′s Germany that permits us to rationally examine this period and to learn from it. Both men have paid heavily for their courage and dedication to the truth.

      What we can learn from Hitler’s Germany, especially its economic polices can be applied to the current capitalist crisis. For example, ending usury and the entire international central banking system dominated by Jewish power.

      The currency Germany used was not tied to any precious metal nor international bankers. Germany had currency that properly measured value tied to the productivity of its labor.

      In the current climate of propaganda, lies and pretension, we are not even permitted to learn from National Socialism and the only acceptable response is ridicule and scorn.

      In fact the Left deliberately “white” out the influence of National Socialism on U.S. politics of the 1930′s. They claim full credit for “pushing” Roosevelt towards a “New Deal”. They make no mention of right-wing influence from Huey Long’s “Share the Wealth” to Hitler’s achievements. Such disinformation means constructing a politics based on futility because the historical lessons are distorted by the Left’s disinformation.

      Zundel has made a huge sacrifice in order that we have more freedom to learn the truth about our history.

      • It’s true, the demonisation of Germany, National Socialism and Hitler, and the sacrelisation of the Holocaust is, to my mind, the spiritual/ideological foundation of our post-war, post-Holocaust discourse. So it follows that if things are to change, these issues must be addressed.

        No wonder they put Ernst in jail.

        • burying the connections and associations that the corporate oligarchs in the usa, europe, and zionists in both, maintained with the nazi establishment in germany seems to be the major no go area. they have spent 7 decades trying to distance themselves from their child and opening up study of the holocaust would also open up study of how nazism and the western corporate establishment (jew and non-jew) were one and the same. exposing these connections to the general public would be like exposing who ran the show behind the wtc attacks.

        • “the demonisation of Germany, National Socialism and Hitler”

          These should not be lumped together. Not all Germans loved Hitler. A minority loved him, a smaller minority loved him to the point of an obsessive fanaticism, a minority hated him, a smaller minority was prepared to risk their lives to oppose him, and the vast majority were the various shades of grey in between.

          The only sensible book I have read about Germans’ attitudes to Hitler is Detlev Peukert’s Inside the Third Reich.

          What is wrong is to suggest that all Germans were willing accomplices. That is a Jewish tribalist lie and a smear on an entire people of 90 million or more.

          • Chester – I think people here sometimes do go ‘too far the other way’. I’ve seen an extreme case degenerate from defending the rights of Palestinians to defending the German invasion of Russia. However, the demonisation of the Nazis – making them sound qualitatively worse than their opponents – is an important contributor to Zionist power, and the left are in it up to their necks, for the most part.

  5. Willing accomplices? Accomplices to what? Surely it’s only if we accept that Hitler (more than say, Napoleon or Roosevelt) was a criminal does the word ‘accomplice’ become appropriate. So in the point I made, I plead not guilty to that particular ‘Jewish tribalist lie’.

    Also, I’m no specialist (Given the demonisation, I can’t see who could make the claim to be a specialist – David Irving perhaps?)but I’ve always thought that Hitler commanded a lot more popular support than you’re claiming.

  8. i had not heard of this man before watching the 1st video segment here. he came across as an elitist german nationalist. which seemed kind of strange given he ran away from germany to live in canada. it then got more bizarre when he put down canadians and insinuated they were inferior to germans, yet whinged about not getting canadian citizenship.

    with the pathetic whinging, the claims of being something special because of heredity and culture and the emphasis on also being special because his skin is white, i’d say the guy is no more special or deserving of the title “The Greatest Dissident of Our Time ” than some bigoted jewish zionist cab driver in ny.

    this zundel comes across as a mirror image of your typical adl pos.

    • “he came across as an elitist german nationalist. ”

      Not to me. He comes across as a German patriot, tired of seeing his nation besmirched and systematically demonized.

      ” seemed kind of strange given he ran away from germany to live in canada.”

      Watch it again and read too. He explains it. He was always a pacifist. After the war, the “allies” who had railed against German “militarism” nevertheless turned around and make Germany a military power, though a subservient one –it is Germany that supplied submarines to Israel. He wanted to live in a country that does not have a draft. He also wanted to get away form a Germany that has never stopped humilataing itself on command in eternal guilt.

      “when he put down canadians and insinuated they were inferior to germans, yet whinged about not getting canadian citizenship”

      Not true. He does not put down Canadians any more than someone criticizing the American government puts down Americans. He did not “whinge”–he never got an explanation for the Canadian gov refusing his request for citizenship.
      You are off on this one and massively unfair.

      • Ariadna Theokopoulos

        he ran off to canada to get away from militarism? that’s not serious. canada has been more militarist than post ww2 germany. in germany, they were not allowed to intervene in foreign countries until the last few years, when zionazi collaborationists changed german law so the zionazis could use them in afghanistan. the green party sell-out then is especially notable, because zionazi influence of the greens (the sods killed kelly to get that) was important in that german submission to the zionazis.

        canada has no problems being a zionazi stooge. they don’t mind sending troops off to fight israel’s enemies. never did, since ww2.

        it was his dismissal as some canadian critic as a quebec backwoodsman where i realised the man is bitching because he’s upset inferiors are dumping on him. his reaction is classic elitism. “how dare a some plaid shirt wearing quebec mongrel criticise me, a pure blood german, with family dating back centuries…”

        sod that s***

        there are 1000s of real dissidents being persecuted in the west, wasting sympathy for some zionazi mirror image is a waste of time and effort.

        • 1. The DRAFT, man, the draft!
          2. Canada was not then what it is now. Far from it. Canada was where the Americans fled during the Vietnam war. Now they’d hand them over to the US authorities.
          3. He is right about the backwoodsman with no knowledge or history or desire to acquire any, fed TV lies. He is right about German culture being minimized, made into a caricature and falsified by backwoodsmen.
          4. He is a real dissident–it doesn’t get any more real than that. If it hadn’t been for his trial the truth would have never come out about the invention of the gas chambers.
          I don’t know what your beef is with him but it isn’t in any of the arguments you bring to justify it.
          Could it be that when you when you have it in for someone you feel compelled to adopt the opposite position on anything at all the other person says? Or could it be that you have a patellar reflex at anything that takes something away/modifies any particulars from your set view of Nazi Germany? Could it be both?

          • actually, at, i sympathised with him at first while watching the video. it wasn’t until listening to him talk that i had second thoughts. his terminology and attitude is what turned me against him. i really don’t see this guy as any different than some zionazi jewish elitist claiming the same sort of crap about being jewish, as opposed to being german.

            while i don’t think his persecution was just, i don’t regard him as some sort of dissident hero. any more than i see the opportunistic persecution of nixon being justification of heroism on the part of that person.

            being persecuted by people in the wrong doesn’t make the victim’s views right, it just makes them persecuted by people in the wrong.

          • “i really don’t see this guy as any different than some zionazi jewish elitist claiming the same sort of crap about being jewish, as opposed to being german.”

            We will have to agree to disagree completely on this

            “while i don’t think his persecution was just, i don’t regard him as some sort of dissident hero. any more than i see the opportunistic persecution of Nixon being justification of heroism on the part of that person.”

            1. Persecution is ipso facto wrong; there is no such thing as a “right” persecution.
            2. The comparison with Nixon is totally in the left field. Nixon was no dissident and he was not “persecuted”–he was one powerful crook set up to fall by other powerful crooks.

            “being persecuted by people in the wrong doesn’t make the victim’s views right, it just makes them persecuted by people in the wrong.”
            1. See #1 above
            2. His views ARE right and have been proven to be so.

          • “1. Persecution is ipso facto wrong; there is no such thing as a “right” persecution.”

            i didn’t say he was rightly persecuted – strawman and dismissed as such. you know better, stop wasting my time with such crap.

            “2. The comparison with Nixon is totally in the left field. Nixon was no dissident and he was not “persecuted”–he was one powerful crook set up to fall by other powerful crooks.”

            true, but that was not my intent of making that comparison. nixon was someone with a view out of whack with his culture (somewhat), he had his supporters and his detractors. his downfall was he proved to be better a “bad guy” than a goodie (at least for a while – the sods resurrected him in the 80′s). this was not due to crime, but politics. his downfall was political, like the attacks on rundel. i find rundel’s white/german supremacist views as repugnant as those of nixon’s, and that is why i compared them.

            both men upset the zionazi status quo. cheers to them for that. but that doesn’t make them heroes. and it doesn’t make rundel some special dissident worthy of worship any more than any other person who opposed censorship.

            from rundel’s words in that first video segment, i have serious doubts he would extend freedom of speech to those opposed to his views if he had the power to stop them.

          • “i didn’t say he was rightly persecuted – strawman and dismissed as such. you know better, stop wasting my time with such crap.”

            1. You said “persecuted in the wrong” and “persecution [not] just”–so not straw man.
            2. My time is just as valuable, so don’t waste mine either with whatever you consider your own production to be.
            Take my previous suggestion: let’s agree to disagree on Zundel.
            I did not take from his videos what you took. Period.

          • Ariadna Theokopoulos

            “1. You said “persecuted in the wrong” and “persecution [not] just”–so not straw man.”

            ok, semantics.

            fool me once…

            “I think the “aah” should be removed and a “z” attached, to make zundel”

            ? you lost me there. :)

          • who_me
            You might have been talking about someone else but it looks like a mistake on his name. You called him rundel when his name is zundel. I was subtly agreeing with you,as in, less of the aah (r) sympathy and replace it with a z.
            Any clearer?

          • who_me
            “i find rundel’s white/german supremacist views as repugnant…” I think the “aah” should be removed and a “z” attached, to make zundel :)

          • Good to bump into you here. I remembered you had a post that mentioned Abbie Hoffman but did not remember where, so I’ll deposit my comment here, since it is a “dissident’ thread anyway:

            1. Spielberg apparently wants to make a movie about the Chicago & and plans to cast Sacha Baron Cohen in Hoffman’s role.

            2. Abbie Hoffman “Revolution for the Hell of it” Hoffman was an avowed and outspoken “anti-imperialist” — he never said boo about Israel, claiming he was all about “no-borders” but saw nothing wrong with Israel (apparently because it has no fixed borders..).
            3. he and his acolytes quietly helped to make the anti-riot laws constitutional
            4. They were funded by the CIA

            http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article10052

          • Cheers for that AT. I’ve got a job to finish this morning, then I’ll look through the “Do It” book and check the link. The Abbie Hoffman influence is still around today in the activist sub culture.

  9. Olympic opening reports– another example of demonization and stereotyping of Germany:

    “Over 200 countries marched at the Olympics. All of them would have earned “worst dressed” status with these Opening Ceremony uniforms. But these are the Germans and there’s something so decidedly un-German about wearing baby colors.”

    Ok, what country would have been entitled to wear “baby colors”?
    The Guantanamo/Abu Ghraib justice distributors and/Iraq-Libya-soon Syria liberators? Or perhaps the “only democracy in the ME?”

    • you forgot about the east german women swimmers. remember that? :D

      recent american women swimmers took over that “macho” role, though, (i cant remember the name of the very “manly” american woman swimmer with the short hair, she even talked like a cowboy, who all the other countrys’ swimmers kept a very wide distance of in events). oddly enough, nobody thought to check if she was a man, her being white, very white, and american, as opposed to being black and south african.

        • oh, come on, at, german olympiads not dressed in blue-grey overcoats and black leather boots? the jewish run msm wouldn’t have it.

          how could israel continue to exist if germans became normal folks?

          • They did not mention how the Israelis were dressed–perhaps in mourning and in protest for the IOC refusing to grant a moment of silence for the 11 Israelis athletes killed in Munich in 1972, despite Obama’s personal plea. Abe Foxman complained of the injustice pointing out that a moment of silence was held for those killed on 9/11.

          • How come they didn’t grant a moment of silence for the 1,400 Palestinians massacred by the Israelis in 2009, or the countless other massacres and atrocities that have occurred in the world? It can’t be because the Israelis were killed at the Olympics, because the British and German football teams were forced to pay their respects at Auschwitz during the Euro 2012 championship, but that atrocity didn’t occur during the football finals.

            Everyone knows they wanted this for propaganda purposes. That is the same reason there are Holocaust Memorial’s in Washington, D.C, Los Angeles, Tokyo and numerous other cities that have absolutely nothing to do with the holocaust.

        • i have not paid much attention to the olympics since the 90′s (not much before, either). the last time i took notice was a winter olympic during a woman’s solo ice skating event. i was mostly listening. as each contestant did their thing i listened to voiceovers from the american channels. there was a french contestant who was very talented, i think she won a gold or something. but when she was on, the american chatterboxes shut up. during the other performances, they were all praise, but when this black french woman did her stint, they made some perfunctory comments here and there, but were very reserved otherwise. the vibe was unmistakeable: black woman-white event.

          it’s funny how just listening one picks up vibes that one doesn’t if they actually watch the turds.

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