Trial of far-right agitator opens in Germany

The incitement trial of Ernst Zundel, a leading Holocaust denier who wrote a book called The Hitler We Loved and Why, opened in Germany today, eight months after Canadian authorities deported him.

Zundel, a 66-year-old native German who has also lived in the US state of Tennessee, faces further charges of libel and disparaging the dead before a court in Germany, which had sought him for years on an international arrest warrant.

The stocky man with steel-rimmed glasses sat between his attorneys as the proceedings began, while dozens of sympathisers packed the viewing gallery.

A prominent white supremacist and Holocaust denier since the late 1970s, Zundel runs Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi and Nazi-era propaganda.

He also provides content to The Zundelsite on the web, which has followers around the world – hundreds of whom have staged demonstrations against his arrest by German authorities in March.

Jewish leaders said they hoped the process would spread awareness of the Holocaust.