Ernst Zündel - the painter
I am Ingrid Rimland Zündel, an ethnic novelist best known for a trilogy called "Lebensraum". I see myself as standing in an honorable place - doing what needs to be done and saying what needs to be said.
As a writer, I am known as Ingrid Rimland. I have had a modest run as a "celebrity" doing keynotes all over the American Continent, telling people where I come from and why I think and act the way I do. Having traveled widely on the lecture circuit for more than a decade, I have addressed audiences as small as 10 and as large as 6,000. Nobody ever walked out on me because of my beliefs.
Ernst Zundel is better known than I am. Ernst Zundel is my husband. He is the man I respect and love dearly. I will not tell his story here because this website is my effort to tell my stance my way. The Zündel struggle and Ernst Zündel's fate are told on a separate website I created 16 years ago, known as the Zundelsite. If you care to visit it, you will learn that Ernst spent a lifetime attacking an historical fraud - for which he was politically kidnapped, imprisoned, charged, and convicted and is still serving time in Germany. In Europe, you get jailed for having spoken Truth to Power about the Holocaust.
This website will not be about the Holocaust. With this website, I want to honor Ernst by featuring his work and his ideas *unrelated* to the Holocaust. I do not have his permission because I do not need his permission, and it could be costly to him, were he to be associated with what I am doing and what I am stating as my own firm beliefs.
I will say this, however:
After his political kidnapping in 2003 and brutal detention in six prisons in three countries on two continents, Ernst was deprived of the most basic necessities that make life worth living and one's own gifts a joy. For two years, he was systematically starved in an unheated cell where the light was never turned off. He was not allowed a pillow, a jacket, shoes, a table, or even a chair. He was routinely verbally and sometimes physically abused. The full story of Ernst's inhuman treatment for having spoken Truth to Power has been told elsewhere and I will not repeat it here. It's to no credit to his political detractors who wanted him silenced once and for all.
So as to save his sanity and aid me in my efforts to marshal legal help, he started sketching by kneeling in front of his toilet, using the lid as a surface. He often sketched on snippets of paper he found in prison garbage bins. Sometimes he used the backs of post cards or envelopes from his mail.
We fought the Zundel struggle in the courts of Canada, the USA, and Germany. These early "Thank you" slips you see below, sent out in exchange for donations, became the means with which I paid our lawyers.
Please take a closer look by clicking on the graphics.
It stands to reason that those first sketches were scant and primitive. Ernst was working with inadequate tools. The colors are weak - sometimes barely visible. He considered himself lucky if he could borrow his lawyer's pen during court appearances - some of his later sketches resulted that way. These prison sketches, drawn on stained paper snippets torn from a letter or an envelope, will be extremely valuable one day. They are a testiment to an undominable moral spirit under extreme mental and physical duress.
I have never sold a single sketch. I used computer copies as "Thank you's" for donations. All donations, based on these sketches, were freely and generously given. I dream of a museum which, in a saner era, is going to display these little nuggets of an indomitable spirit.
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After two years spent in a dungeon in Canada, Ernst was renditioned to Germany. After a disgraceful political show trial, he was sentenced to five additional years. His situation became a bit more humane in that he was allowed to buy some paper, paint and brushes in the prison store, and on rare occasions he was permitted to receive some better quality tools of his trade as Christmas gifts from supporters.
Additionally, he collected paper lids from breakfast jam containers, sketching some lovely pieces that way, although the surface was slippery and could easily be smudged. Please take a look. Check by clicking on the graphic. I think they are still simple - but precious.
Later still, he was allowed to participate in a painting course offered inside prison, and even though he was still not allowed to give his talent and imagination free rein, some of his better creations resulted.
I now own some 1,200 of those original sketches. I have numbered and scanned them, and they are kept in a safe place and will not be given out at this time. However, as I did before, I offer computer copies in exchange for support of our outreach to help create a better world, as will be explained below.
How copies of these sketches will be used
I have loosely grouped these sketches in 23 grids according to what supporters may find interesting. Animals. Landscapes. Religious motifs such as crosses. Political statements of anger or despair. Lovely flowers. Pretty butterflies. I am amazed at the incentive staying power these simple sketches elicited from people all over the world. Today, these sketches are already notable collectibles. Tomorrow, I believe, they will be worth a lot!
Donation Grid
(click on the category of your choice)
