The Campaign for Radical Truth in History

http://www.hoffman-info.com

[Commentary by Michael A. Hoffman II follows this article]

November 14 ,1996 . Times of London:

Neo-Nazis fight to take over extremist publishing empire

By Roger Boyes

A POWER struggle has erupted among Europe's neo-Nazis as shadowy businessmen fight to fill the vacuum left by Gary Lauck, the jailed right-wing American publisher. The strongest claim to be the new godfather of right-wing extremism now comes from Ernst Zündel, a German Canadian who has bought air time on Russian radio stations to transmit anti-Semitic propaganda to Germany.

The 57-year-old businessman, who normally lives in Toronto and who made his fortune with property deals, runs the biggest neo-Nazi mail order company in Europe, issues regular newsletters to sympathisers and is using the Internet to spread his views on National Socialism and the "worldwide Jewish conspiracy."

The Internet has reduced Herr Zündel's dependence on smuggling banned pamphlets into Germany and has put him in a stronger position than Mr Lauck, the so-called Führer of the Farmbelt, who was jailed in Germany for four years last August. His American-based publishing empire, including a newsletter, National Socialist Battle Cry, dominated the German neo-Nazi market for many years but was dealt a heavy blow by Mr Lauck's arrest.

Now Herr Zündel, still a German citizen, is making the running. His move to use an impoverished medium-wave radio station in Kaliningrad sent alarm bells ringing in Germany. The hour-long broadcasts ­ Here is the German Voice of Freedom ­ were sent on 1386kHz medium wave after the normal Voice of Russia German service transmissions.

The programmes were devoted mainly to reading out chunks from the works of right-wing historians doubting that the Holocaust took place. It is illegal to transmit or publish such sentiments in Germany. The Russian authorities have now halted the broadcasting, but Herr Zündel is negotiating with other radio stations in Ukraine and Poland.

Herr Zündel is constantly searching for a radio outlet ­ in 1993 he broadcast from stations in New Orleans and Nashville ­ but Russia remains his favourite propaganda base. The reason is not merely technical, although reception of Russian broadcasts is good in Germany. It is also because the post-communist states along the Baltic coast line are an ideological target for far-right Germans who want somehow to snatch north-east Prussia.

Herr Zündel and a wide range of other neo-Nazi groups have been trying to encourage ­ with money and propaganda ­ the resettlement of ethnic Germans from different parts of Russia to the Baltic coast. This aim underpins the contacts between Gerhard Frey, the right-wing publisher, who is leader of the still-legal German People's Union, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Russian ultra-nationalist. Joachim Siegirist, the German far-right politician, has also been active in Latvian politics.

Herr Zündel has a number of neo-Nazi media rivals. Walter Ochensberger, an Austrian publisher who served a short sentence in Germany, is again turning out extremist brochures from Morocco, out of reach of German law. Another Austrian neo-Nazi, Gerd Honsik, also in Spain, is producing leaflets for German consumption. Hans Heinz Schmidt, an American of German origin, was detained in Germany last year for printing racist publications, but jumped bail and is believed to be back in the United States.

--------------------

Criminalizing Writers: A Textbook Case of Big Media's Thought Cops at Work

by Michael A. Hoffman II ©1996

The preceding Times of London article appeared at a time when the European media is all aflutter about Denmark's reluctance to host Salman Rushdie, the blasphemous author who offended the mullahs of Iran.

The Times article is a fairly good example of the thought police genre. I call it "assumption prop." The assumption of the article is that the people mentioned are tycoons or criminals: Ernst Zündel, a courageous publisher of dissident pamphlets put on trial twice in Canada for printing a book some Khazars did not like, whose home has been burned to the ground, who has received mail bombs and been assaulted by "JDL" thugs, is described merely as a"businessman."

The costly human rights effort to liberate the German people from one of the most repressive censorship regimes in the West--Bonn's Bundesrepublik--which has led to the impoverishment and imprisonment of the activists thus engaged-- is painted in terms of a mercantile cabal competing for profits.

Allusions to jail sentences, "jumping bail," "out of the reach of the law" and similar phrases lacking all context, establish a tenor of criminality. One would hardly know that the article is about writers and broadcasters who have run afoul of the reigning dogma of our time.

In this vacuum, references to "racist publications," "anti-Semitic propaganda" and "extremist brochures" transmit the implicit assumption that evil is all on one side.

But is it "racist" to oppose Zionist racism? Is it "propaganda" to question the still extant war propaganda of the Allies? Is it "extremist" to doubt extremely exaggerated accounts of Jewish suffering?

Why is it noble to defend the Khazars against medieval blood libels but odious to defend the Germans against 20th century blood libels?

What was writer Walter Ochensberger sentenced to jail in Germany for? The preceding article does not tell us. Presumably because of his dissident writings, he has been hounded and hunted and jailed--just like Salman Rushdie--but the comparison cannot be allowed by Big Media. To do so would be to place the entire debate about forbidden writings outside the agenda of Zionist hysteria and propaganda and within the circle of human rights and freedom of speech concerns.

Roger Boyes' article is a classic bit of disinformation from the Ministry of Thought Police. By never even regarding his subjects as human beings and bracketing them within a criminal milieu, readers are only dimly cognizant of the actual issues at stake.

One views them through the eyes of their inquisitors. The perspective of the victims is never given. There is no need to give it--they are criminals by assumption.

For writers and publishers who are enemies of Islam--accolades, sympathy and investigative journalism. For writers and journalists who are enemies of the Shoah biz industry--contempt, lies and demonization.

Michael A. Hoffman II

The Campaign for Radical Truth in History

http://www.hoffman-info.com


books / tapes / newsletters / order form

essays on current events / research archives / news bureau / home