Ernst Zundel, a far-right activist who rose to notoriety over decades of public neo-Nazi activity in Canada and the US before being deported back to his native Germany on Holocaust denial charges, has died, German authorities say. He was 78.
Marina Lahmann, a spokeswoman for the community of Bad Wildbad in Baden-Wuerttemberg where Zundel lived, says that Zundel died over the weekend. She had no further information, saying the paperwork had not yet been processed.
“We can only confirm at the moment that he died,” she said.
German right wing extremist Ernst Zundel in a court in Mannheim, southern Germany, at the beginning of a trial to face charges including incitement libel and disparaging the dead, November 8, 2005. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Media in Canada quoted a statement from his wife, Ingrid Zundel, saying that he died of a heart attack at his home on Sunday. His wife, who lives in the United States, told CTV news she had spoken to her husband “just hours before he passed on and he was as optimistic and upbeat as ever.”
Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel emigrated to Canada in 1958 — allegedly to avoid German military service — and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001.
He achieved international notoriety for his neo-Nazi beliefs and writings, including “The Hitler We Loved and Why,” and operated Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi and Nazi-era propaganda. He also provided regular content for an eponymous far-right website.
Canadian officials rejected his attempts to obtain citizenship in 1966 and 1994.
— AP
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