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NEWS DESK MICHAEL WALSH, 4th March 2001
BOOK BURNING IN SLOVAKIA
A Slovakian publisher, Agnes Burdova, is facing an eight-year gaol sentence if she is convicted for publishing the first ever Slav edition of Adolf Hitler’s monumental work, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). This is the world famous first hand account of the German leader’s phenomenal rise to power through the difficult years following Germany’s First World War defeat.
During the 1930s Mein Kampf was printed and published in scores of countries, even serialised. It was, after the Holy Bible, the biggest selling book of the 20th Century.
WINSTON CHURCHILL PRAISES HITLER’S ‘MEIN KAMPF’
Of the struggle described in this awesome book, Winston Churchill, England’s wartime Prime Minister conceded; "The story of that struggle cannot be read without admiration for the courage, the perseverance, and the vital force which enabled him (Adolf Hitler) to challenge, defy, conciliate, or overcome, all the authorities or resistance's which barred his path. He, and the ever increasing legions who worked with him, certainly showed at this time, in their patriotic ardour and love of country, that there was nothing that they would not dare, no sacrifice of life, limb or liberty that they would not make themselves or inflict upon their opponents." - Winston Churchill. Francis Nielson. 'Makers of War' p.101.
CZECH REPUBLIC’S KANGAROO COURT CONDEMNED
However, in the neighbouring Czech Republic the appeals court have overturned a verdict against book publisher Michal Zitco who had been found guilty of publishing a Czech version of this historical document. The appeals court has set aside Zitco’s three-year suspended gaol sentence and the £36,500 fine, earlier imposed by a district court, on the grounds of serious procedural errors.
The appeals court criticised the district court for making serious procedural mistakes by refusing to take statements from witnesses for the defence, for failing to hear Zitco’s lawyer Tomas Sokol, and instead relying solely on police statements.
In effect it was a court hearing in which the defence was excluded; a serious contravention of Zitco’s human rights and those of other publishers. By a delicious irony denial of human rights was the very charge given against the book’s publication. Now the district court now stands accused of committing the very same crime as the defendant in the dock!
JEWISH LEADERS BACK TRIALS WITHOUT DEFENCE
The Executive Director of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, Tomas Kraus, himself a lawyer said: "I am surprised at this ruling. But even if this decision temporarily gives out the wrong message, what really counts is the final result.
This statement made by the Czech Republic’s most prominent Jewish community’s spokesman is carefully worded to express support for courts that deny access to defence counsel or witnesses for the defence.
Alarm has now been raised by the Jewish leader’s turn of phrase that it is a ‘temporary’ setback and the presumption that Zitco ‘will’ be found guilty as ‘it is the final result that really counts’. The implication is that when the whole process starts again and the young publisher stands trial for a second time, the Jewish community will expect a guilty verdict that cannot be reversed.
In the meantime the presses are publishing tens of thousands of copies of Hitler’s side of the Third Reich story as fast as people can purchase them. It could be a case of shooting the messenger – after the message has been delivered.
For further information Michael Walsh