The Canadian Jewish Congress has asked the Ontario attorney general to investigate whether convicted Holocaust revisionist Ernst Zundel violated his parole when he recently distributed material in Germany denying the Holocaust took place.
The CJC asked Attorney General Howard Hampton to look into whether Zundel’s activities abroad are enough to order him deported from Canada.
The German national, who never acquired Canadian citizenship, was convicted in early November by a Munich court of distributing hate material and fined more than U.S. $20,000.
He was also stopped last week from entering Spain to take part in a fascist demonstration that was held Nov. 19 in honor of the late Spanish fascist dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
A spokesperson for the Ontario attorney general said the Justice Ministry had already spoken with German authorities about the matter but had not yet decided whether Zundel had breached his bail conditions.
Zundel, 52, told the Munich court that the neo-Nazi videotapes and newsletters he was charged with distributing were made and circulated in Germany were made and circulated in Germany without his knowledge. He claims the tapes were edited from “documentaries” made in 1980 and 1982.
Zundel is appealing his conviction in Germany.
Zundel, who lives in Toronto, was arrested in Munich in March while attending a conference and rally of revisionist historians. His lawyer, Klaus Goebel, denies he intended to speak.
According to a police spokesman, a warrant for Zundel’s arrest was issued in Stuttgart as early as 1980.
Zundel was convicted of 210 counts of defamation and ordered to pay a fine of over U.S. $20,000 but chose to appeal, Under German law, if a defendant decides to contest the fine, a trial is held.
Zundel, who is originally from an area in eastern Germany that was absorbed by Poland after World War II, came to Canada in the late 1950s.
A SCALE MODEL OF AUSCHWITZ
Because of his recent activities in Europe, the CJC has asked that Zundel not be allowed back in Canada.
Zundel is scheduled to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada, in Ottawa, on Dec. 10, for the appeal of his 1988 conviction for knowingly publishing false news, in violation of Section 177 of the Criminal Code.
Zundel was originally convicted in February 1985 on charges of distributing “Did Six Million Really Die?” That pamphlet denies the existence of any Nazi plan of genocide against the Jews during World War II and claims the Holocaust is a hoax designed to enrich the State of Israel through reparations. Both his convictions in Canada make him liable for deportation, which has so far been stayed pending his appeals.
In Zundel’s first Canadian trial, a 12-person jury found him guilty of publishing false news and sentenced him to 15 months in prison. But the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned that conviction and ordered a new trial.
In May 1988, following a new trial that received far less media coverage, he was given a nine-month sentence.
Zundel is currently subject to a U.S. $8,900 Ontario bail order pending his appeal. Should he lose that appeal, he faces deportation proceedings.
Zundel calls his Toronto house his “bunker,” has a scale model of Auschwitz in his basement, bars on his windows and a security camera of his roof, and wears a bulletproof vest, according to a 1985 profile in the New York daily Newsday.
(JTA correspondent Ben Kayfetz in Toronto contributed to this report.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
