An anti-Semitic agitator in Sweden has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for disseminating hate material. The conviction of Ditlieb Felderer, a key adherent of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), a U.S.-based outfit seeking to disprove the Nazi Holocaust, was aided by information provided by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
The Swedish government prosecutor, Torsten Jonsson, in a letter to the ADL’s European Office director, Shimon Samuels, thanked the ADL for the information. “It was of great value for me and made it easier for me to visualize the background of the case,” Jonsson wrote.
Felderer, who resides in the Stockholm suburb of Taby, publishes anti-Semitic newsleters entitled “Jewish Information, ” “Bible Researcher” and “Arab News” which are distributed throughout Europe.
According to the information supplied to the prosecutor, Felderer was the source of mailings to leaders of the European Jewish community which contained pieces of fat and locks of hair with an enclosed letter asking recipients if they could identify the contents as Hungarian Jews gassed in Auschwitz, Felderer is also known to have called Jewish groups using the pseudonym “David Cohen” to seek out information to supposedly counter revisionist claims.
Among the key witnesses who testified against Felderer was Mel Mermelstein, a Long Beach, Calif. businessman and Holocaust survivor who is suing the IHR for failing to make good on a $50,000 reward promised to anyone who could prove the Holocaust took place.
The investigation into the Felderer case was launched largely due to the effort of Vincent Frank Steiner, president of the Anne Frank Foundation of Switzerland.
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