Landmark Court Decision Convicts Holocaust Denier in Brazil
Source: B’nai B’rith 1640 Rhode Island Ave., NW Washington, DC 20036,
Press Office 7th Floor, (202)857-6536, Fax (202)296-1092
Landmark Court Decision Convicts Holocaust Denier
in Brazil
Washington, D.C. (November 7, 1996) — For the first time in Latin America a Holocaust denier has been found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. The landmark decision of the High Court of Justice in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul reversed a lower court ruling and resulted in the conviction of Siegfried Ellwanger on grounds that he violated the nation’s constitution and penal code.
The president of B’nai B’rith in Brazil hailed the decision. “Holocaust deniers such as Ellwanger seek to encourage racial and religious divisions that are not compatible with our democratic society,” said Abrao Lowenthal. B’nai B’rith along with other Jewish groups in Brazil brought Ellwanger to trial.
Because Ellwanger had no previous criminal record the court waived his prison sentence and ordered him to perform three years of community service and ordered him to stop publishing his racist material. Under the ruling, Ellwanger’s books will be confiscated and banned. Ellwanger, who writes under the name “S.E. Castan,” has written or published 13 anti-Semitic books in Portuguese including the infamous The Elders of the Protocols of Zion and Henry Ford’s The International Jew. One of Ellwanger’s books is titled The Holocaust: Jewish or German.”
The Jewish community of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which brought the case to court, was pleased with the verdict. According to their attorney Helio Santana, a B’nai B’rith member, “Ellwanger has denied the existence of concentration camps as well as the numbers of people who died at the hands of Nazis and their collaborators. He tried to twist reality by stating that the Holocaust was a big lie.”
Rio Grande do Sul is one of the wealthiest states in Brazil. It is home to a sizeable German population and has been the scene of persisting neo-Nazi and skinhead activities. There are 12,500 Jews in the state, mostly in the capital. Ellwanger, who is Brazilian-born, is part of a racist, separatist movement which wants the state to secede from Brazil in order to isolate itself from other ethnic groups in the country.
B’nai B’rith International President Tommy P. Baer, a lawyer based in Richmond, Virginia, hailed the decision. “This critical legal decision has important ramifications for Brazil and all of Latin America. By punishing this hatemonger, Brazil is working to meet a standard of decency which will not tolerate bigotry and hatred.”
The world’s oldest and largest Jewish organization, B’nai B’rith has members in 56 countries including Brazil and others throughout Latin America.
