1. Background
Canada has a long tradition of tolerance and multiculturalism.
That's why many residents of the K-W area were shocked and
saddened to learn that a stereo store on King Street in
Kitchener was displaying posters advertising a talk by David
Irving, a self-described historian who says that the estimates
of six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II are
greatly exaggerated. Inside the store, according to the K-W
Record, one can find for sale a book by Fred Leuchter that
claims that the gas chambers at Auschwitz were never used
for mass killing. After local protests, the store owner retaliated
by putting up posters about the banking system based on the
writings of anti-Semite Eustace Mullins. Subsequently, these
posters were taken down by the store owner, but one explicitly
anti-Semitic flyer still remains. The Kitchener-Waterloo
Record recently carried a letter to the editor by Paul Fromm,
director of "Canadian Association for Free Expression, Inc.".
This letter defended neo-Nazi publisher Ernst Zundel, saying,
"Zundel was dragged through the courts for nine years ...
MERELY for his UNPOPULAR views." [emphasis mine]
Who are Michael Rothe, David Irving, Fred Leuchter, Eustace
Mullins, and Paul Fromm, and what do they stand for?
2. Michael Rothe
Michael Rothe is the owner of European Sound Imports, at
109 King Street W. in Kitchener. According to the K-W Record,
he is a native of southern Germany, who came to Canada
eight years ago. His stereo store might appear harmless on
the outside, but on the inside, one can obtain anti-Semitic
propaganda from a variety of sources. According to the
Record, in addition to the book by Fred Leuchter mentioned
above, one can also purchase a booklet on the court battles of
pro-Nazi publisher Ernst Zundel. Rothe also believes that the
Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated, and that there is a
world-wide Jewish conspiracy behind it. "They want money.
When they have money they have power," he has been
quoted as saying. Although Rothe has claimed, "I have not
seen a neo-Nazi before," according to the Record, he attended
a recent "victory party" for Ernst Zundel, and Zundel was
recently sighted at his store. When I asked Rothe if he knew
what Irving would speak on, he claimed, "Irving comes to
speak on Germany ... only Germany." When I pointed out that
this was false, that Irving actually spends a significant portion
of his speeches discussing how the Holocaust is a hoax, he
repeated, "No, that is wrong -- Irving only speaks about
Germany." However, the posters Rothe himself has put up
belie this claim--they list the Holocaust as a topic of Irving's
speech.
3. David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is a British "historian", born in