My Role in the Zündel Trial

by Mark Weber

For the better part of five days in March 1988, I testified as an expert witness for the defense in the "Holocaust Trial" of German-Canadian publisher Ernst Zündel. It was one of the most challenging and interesting experiences of my life, as well as one of the most emotionally grueling.

Zündel was on trial in Toronto District Court for publishing Did Six Million Really Die?, a 32-page booklet (often called the "Harwood booklet" after the pen name of its English author) that contests the Holocaust story, that the Germans systematically exterminated six million European Jews during the Second World War.

During my time on the stand, which included a detailed examination of the booklet itself, I presented evidence which, together with the testimony of the other defense witnesses, powerfully discredits the extermination story. I also told the court about the solid achievements of Holocaust Revisionism in the years since the Harwood booklet was first published in England in 1974.

For the sake of clarity in this essay, I have reorganized and compressed my testimony into a coherent summary. I have also tried to convey something of the atmosphere in the courtroom, and have included a few personal observations. More