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Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

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ZYGIELBOJM, SZMUL ARTUR<br />

leges, and in 1985 he was first brought to trial for disseminating “false news” under<br />

Section 177 <strong>of</strong> the Criminal Code <strong>of</strong> Canada. Found guilty, he was sentenced to fifteen<br />

months in jail and three years probation. Ever the showman, Zündel would arrive at his<br />

trial dressed in a bullet-pro<strong>of</strong> vest and blue hard hat emblazoned with the logo “Freedom<br />

<strong>of</strong> Speech.” In 1987 his conviction was overturned and a new trial was granted. He was,<br />

again, convicted and sentenced to a nine-month jail term. In 1990, he arrived at the<br />

Toronto jail dressed in a “concentration camp costume” with the words “Political<br />

Prisoner Ernst Zündel.” In 1992 the Supreme Court <strong>of</strong> Canada struck down the “false<br />

news” law, thus nullifying his conviction. In 1994, Zündel applied for Canadian citizenship<br />

for the second time, having previously been rejected in 1966. His application was,<br />

again, rejected. In 2001, he left Canada for the United States and settled in Pigeon<br />

Forge, Tennessee. He also got married to his second wife and manager <strong>of</strong> his Web site,<br />

Ingrid Rimland. In 2003, he was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization<br />

Service for violation <strong>of</strong> U.S. law, and was extradited to Canada where, in 2005, he was<br />

convicted for publicly denying the Holocaust. He was then extradited to Germany,<br />

where he remains in Mannheim Prison for the same crime. (Note: In Germany, Holocaust<br />

denial is a more serious crime and punished with lengthier terms <strong>of</strong> confinement<br />

than in other countries.)<br />

Zur Vernichtung durch Arbeit (German, “Destruction Through Work”). On<br />

September 18, 1942, Reich Minister <strong>of</strong> Justice Otto Thierack (1889–1946) signed an<br />

agreement with SS General Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) stating that all Jews currently<br />

imprisoned, and some non-Jews as well, could be transferred to SS control and subsequently<br />

worked to death. Such would, indeed, become the standard operating procedure<br />

in all <strong>of</strong> the extermination camps under SS control. The agreement was opposed by the<br />

Wehrmacht, who wanted to make good use <strong>of</strong> slave labor.<br />

Zurug. Zurug, which basically means “darkness,” is an Arab term used as a derogatory<br />

term to refer to black Africans in the Darfur region <strong>of</strong> western Sudan. The term suggests<br />

an inferior status, inherent biological inferiority, or a slave past. Put bluntly, it is the<br />

equivalent <strong>of</strong> the use <strong>of</strong> “nigger” in Western society.<br />

Zygielbojm, Szmul Artur (1895–1943). Born in Borowice, Lublin, Zygielbojm joined<br />

the Polish Bund (General Jewish Labor Union), becoming increasingly active in its work,<br />

and eventually serving on its central committee. By 1938 he was elected to the Lodz<br />

(Poland) City Council. (Lodz was the second-largest city in Poland.) Immediately after<br />

the outbreak <strong>of</strong> World War II and Poland’s defeat, Zygielbojm was arrested by the<br />

Germans. Subsequently, he was released but realizing he was in danger <strong>of</strong> being rearrested,<br />

Zygielbojm fled to Belgium in December 1939. From there, he fled to France, later New<br />

York, and in 1942 went to London as a member <strong>of</strong> the National Council <strong>of</strong> the Polish<br />

government-in-exile. A fervent Polish nationalist and outspoken anti-Zionist (i.e., those<br />

opposed to the recreation <strong>of</strong> a Jewish national home in Palestine), he redirected his energies<br />

toward saving Polish Jewry as an ever-increasing amount <strong>of</strong> information was gathered<br />

regarding their extermination at the hands <strong>of</strong> the Nazis. That same year (1942), he made<br />

one public speech after another on BBC radio regarding the fate <strong>of</strong> Polish Jews. On May<br />

12, 1943, when word <strong>of</strong> the liquidation <strong>of</strong> the Warsaw Ghetto and the deaths <strong>of</strong> its inhabitants<br />

(including his wife and sixteen-year-old son) reached Zygielbojm, he committed<br />

suicide. In his letters to the president and prime minister <strong>of</strong> Poland, he wrote, “I cannot<br />

keep quiet, I cannot live, while the remnants <strong>of</strong> the Jewish people in Poland who sent me<br />

485

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