A Letter from Political Prisoner Gerhard Ittner

Yesterday I received a letter from Gerhard Ittner, who since April is being held in a prison in Lisbon fighting extradition to Germany for "thought crimes" related to the "Holocaust." Ittner had been evading the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) "justice" for 7 years; he has been in Portugal for most of that time.

But then the FRG issued a European Arrest Warrant for Ittner, which must be honored Europe-wide, and Ittner decided to risk arrest for the chance to bring his case to the International or European courts. He began writing again under a nom de plume, knowing he would sooner or later be discovered.

I interviewed Henrik Holappa about Ittner on July 7th, and a few weeks afterward sent the prisoner a short note. On August 26, he wrote a letter to me in return, in very neat longhand - which I only just received. I am reproducing most of that letter below.

Dear Carolyn,

Thank you very much for your letter! And don't mind my English, I have been out of practice.Your name Yeager reminds me of somethng.I just don't know what. Of course, I think Yeager stems from the German Jäger - hunter - but it's not what I mean, it has something to do with the name Yeager itself.*

Since you want to help me, I think the best way to do that is to make my case known in the United States.To blame and to protest against the Federal Republic of Germany because of this clear violation of the human right of free speech. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, and other countries, the USA claims to bring democracy by war and bombing, so why don't they use their political influence on the FRG to bring democracy there without having to shed any blood?

Where there is no freedom of speech, there can be no democracy.

Where people are persecuted and put in jail just for speaking their minds and expressing their opinions about things, there is no democracy.

The USA claims to be concerrned about the violation of the right of free speech in China, in Iran - but why do they remain silent about the violation of the right of free speech in today's Germany, an alleged democratic country? In Germany, the 76-year old Horst Mahler is sentenced to 13 years of jail just for free speech! That's worse than anywhere else in the world. Or think about my case, and the fact that 10,000 people are persecuted because of "free speech crimes" in today's Germany each year.

The interview Henrik did with me in English contains further information about me and my case.Thank you for wanting to help me!

[*He may be thinking of the famous American test pilot Chuck Yeager, who participated in bombing German civilians during WWII.]

Write to Gerhard Ittner at: Estabelecimento Prisional, Regional de Beja, Rua de Lisboa No 81, P-7800-292 Beja, PORTUGAL

*    *    *

In his interview with Holappa, Ittner asked that the interview be published in Finnish, German, Swedish, English, and other languages as well, if possible. He said it would be a good idea if we, the readers, in our "free" countries were to

• write to the Portuguese Embassy in our respective nations, as well as the German Embassy, and to Human Rights organizations to protest against his case;
  
• protest in terms of the violation of freedom of speech in the FRG, which wants to persecute him;
  
• add that this is a violation of human rights and if Lui Xiaobo was getting the Nobel Peace Prize for protesting against political censorship of speech in China, then Gerhard Ittner and Horst Mahler must get the Nobel Prize too!

In light of my offer to help, I've organized the following addresses and phone numbers so we can all contact the Portuguese and German embassies, by letter or phone:

EMBASSY OF PORTUGAL
2125 Kalorama Road, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 328-8610
Fax: (202) 462-3726

CONSULATE GENERAL OF PORTUGAL
590 5th Avenue
New York, N. Y. 10036
Tel: (212) 221-3165 Fax: (212) 221-3462

CONSULATE GENERAL OF PORTUGAL
3298 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Tel: (415) 346-3400
Fax: (415) 346-1440

CONSULATE OF PORTUGAL
71 S. Wacker
Chicago, IL 60606
Tel: (312) 259-9408

CONSULATE OF PORTUGAL
1801 Avenue of the Stars - Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Tel: (310) 277-1491

CONSULATE OF PORTUGAL
P.O. Box 3470
Honolulu, Hawaii 96801-3470
Tel: (808) 841-2828

Portugal Embassy , Germany

Zimmerstrasse, 56 Postal Code: 10117 Berlin Germany
Phone: +49-30-590063500  +49-30-590063810
Fax: +49-30-590063600

Portugal Embassy , United Kingdom

11 Belgrave Square, Belgravia, London SW1X 8PP, United Kingdom
Phone: +44-20-7235-5331  +44-20-7291-3770
Fax: +44-20-7245-1287  +44-20-7291-3799

Portugal Embassy , Sweden

Narvavägen 30, PO Box 10194, 10055 Estocolmo Sweden
Phone: +46-86634555 Fax: +46-86625329
Email: [email protected]

Portugal Embassy , Finland

Itainen Puistotie 11- B Postal Code: 00140 Helsinky Finland
Phone: +358-9-6824370 Fax: +358-9-663550

Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Washington D.C

Phone: +1-202-298-4000 Fax: +1-202-298-4261

Consulate of Germany in Atlanta, GA

Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London

23 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PZ

Tel. 020 7824 1300   Fax. 020 7824 1449

Germany Embassy, France

13-5, avenue Franklin Roosevelt  75008 Paris, France

Phone: +0033-1-5383-4500 Fax: +0033-1-5383-4502

Email: [email protected]

German Embassy, Spain

Calle de Fortuny, 8, 28010 Madrid Spain

Phone: +34-91-557-9000 Fax:+34-91-310-2104

Email: [email protected]

Germany Embassy , Italy

Via San Martino della Battaglia, 4, 00185 Roma Italy
Phone: +39-6-492131 Fax: +39-6-4452672
Email: [email protected]

Let's all do it! It will make each of us feel better.