Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYmotions were filed which aimed at the introduction of evidence on historicalissues but which are prohibited in federal German court rooms,but in addition to this Zündel’s lawyers also denied the legitimacy ofthe trial as such, even of the court, of the federal German judiciary, andthe existence of the Federal Republic of Germany as a whole, and to topit off, all this they garnished at times with hefty rhetoric. It was thereforeinexorable that Ernst Zündel would receive the whole “broadside,”since the bargain he had been offered – a ridiculous discount of sixmonths in exchange for the “voluntary” surrender of Ernst Zündel’swife to the federal German authorities – was absolutely unacceptable.I must admit that I, too, was initially tempted to conduct a confrontationaldefense of Ernst Zündel’s style, more for reasons of defiance andanger than for rational motives. But the Zündel trial’s echo in the mediaand the judges’ reaction to it cured me swiftly and thoroughly of thattemptation. Yet at the time when my trial started I still had those threedefense lawyers who had also defended, or were defending, Ernst Zündeland who therefore had gained an accordingly bad reputation amongthe judges at the Mannheim District Court. That could have been a disadvantage,but it could also have been turned into an advantage.Another lesson I was taught in numerous conversations with coinmatesis that it is sometimes better to agree to a deal rather than todefiantly risk everything, which is to say, to claim innocence and gamblefor an acquittal. But for bargaining one needs a lawyer who is heldin high regard by the court, and there was none amongst my three lawyers.Hence good advice was hard to come by.The situation was exacerbated four months before the trial started bythe fact that the wife of lawyer Ludwig Bock, who had been assigned tomy case by the court, had developed brain cancer, so that this lawyerwas almost totally unavailable right up to the middle of my trial. Hencea new, prestigious lawyer had to be found.III. The DealIn this situation a supporter of mine had the “crazy” idea two monthsprior to the beginning of the trial to ask the famous German defenselawyer Rolf Bossi whether he would take my case. Against all expectationshe agreed, although he could become active only after I was almostfinished with my defense speech during the trial, because the correspondencewith Bossi’s law firm had dragged on for four months due341