Ernst Zundel is Canadian holocaust revisionist and journalist. He has been imprisoned in Canada for expressing his views about holocaust, in which he questions the existence of the extermination camps, claiming that there were only concentration camps in WWII.
He claims that the holocaust is little more than media hype created by Jews in the 1960s and that the number of Jews who died in concentration camps is greatly exaggerated. In his trial, he presented evidence from a United States gas chamber expert who traveled to Auschwitz to examine the possibility that there were facilities used for gassing the Jews. Wall samples were collected by this expert, and sent to a laboratory to be tested for exposure to cyanide. No traces of it were found - the laboratory which was doing the test was independent, and did not know the source of the samples. All this evidence for at least the claim that Zundel was himself a believer in his own claims (which was formally enough to acquit him) was not sufficient and he was later imprisoned, but that only promoted his views further. The law which sent him to jail was later abolished as counterproductive.
The plight of a gas chamber expert, Fred A. Leuchter, who gave evidence in the trial has been subject of a documentary by Errol Morris. He was harrased by Jewish groups, lost his job and his family life was consequently ruined. The experts from the laboratory were of better luck, as they later claimed that they didn't know the source of the samples, and questioned their own reports in the Morris documentary.
Quotes by Ernst Zundel:
- I have always seen blunders in my life not as stumbling blocks, but as stepping stones.