On October 25th last year, Günther Deckert was freed from the Open Prison in Bruschsal near Karlsruhe, Germany. This was the end of five years' imprisonment in both the Open Prison and State Prison. Let us remind ourselves of Deckert's main "offence": over-enthusiastically translating a talk by American revisionist Fred Leuchter! For this "crime", he was until recently forced to spend his evenings in the company of twenty murderers watching a TV blasting at top volume.

Günther Deckert was born on 9th January 1940 in the historic city of Heidelberg. As is the case with many German cities, a close connection exists with Britain: a tower at Heidelberg Castle was built by Elector Frederick for the use of his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of James I. Alas, all previous friendship and links between our two countries were disregarded during the twentieth century in favour of two mad wars, which wrecked Britain even more than Germany.

Demonisation of Germans

The Germans have contributed more to civilisation than most, but that contribution has been sidelined, ignored, or even reviled during the last fifty years - by no coincidence also the tragic years of European decline. And from Heidelberg, one thinks of other places and cities, such as Hebron or Jerusalem. Though certainly not of the same order as the glories of Heidelberg, in times gone by, these were picturesque old eastern towns of mosques and markets, but now have become wretched hell-holes of concrete block-houses, machine-guns and missiles. William Blake once said that: "The eye sees more than the heart knows". We should learn to use our eyes more to understand which nations tend towards a dedication to art and culture, and which towards greed, profit-taking and domination over fellow-men.

Günther's father, Albert Deckert, served as a medical corporal on the Eastern Front. By the close of 1944, the tide of war had swept so far west that an entire German Army Group was cut off in Latvia, trapped in the large northern province known as Kurland. The Kurland Army, though out-numbered and out-gunned, held off six successive Soviet attacks and made possible the seaborne evacuation of countless thousands of civilians and wounded soldiers. The refugees fled with good reason, since the Red Army onslaught has been described even by "moderate" historians as the most savage and barbarous invasion of Europe since the days of the Mongol hordes. Among those evacuated were many concentration camp inmates travelling on board the Cap Arcona, who reached the apparent safety of Kiel only to be "holocausted" by an RAF bomber at the very end of the War. Are not the vanquished merely guilty as the victors would have been had they lost - perhaps less so in some cases?

We in Britain are often accustomed to showering ourselves with self-congratulation as the very models of courage and endurance - the endless, and occasionally sickly, harping on past glories being some sort of compensation for our present plight. But hardly anyone remembers the profound and lonely heroism of those German troops who ended the war cut off in the coastal areas of East Prussia and the Baltic States. In April 1945, Albert Deckert was killed in action on the Kurland Front: here at least he shall be remembered. Hier ruht in Gott ein Deutsche Held Tapfer und treu.

Ruined nation

In the first five years of Günther's life, Germany had changed from being the major force in Europe to a defeated and ruined nation, occupied and overshadowed by starvation. After a good education at Weinhein Grammar School and Heidelberg University, he became a senior school teacher. Increasing politically-inspired persecution, beginning during the seventies, led to his demotion and dismissal from the teaching service.

From its foundation in 1964, Günther was closely associated with Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD), initially led by Adolf von Thadden. Von Thadden had a sense of humour, and his favourite quip was: "I can't help being called Adolf." The NPD is a "Germany-first" party of patriotism, free speech and economic nationalism, without any true connection with the pre-war NSDAP. Günther Deckert eventually was elected and served as NPD town Councillor for Weinheim, and later was elected chairman of the NPD in 1991, a position he held for five years.

The other side of the German Wirtschaftswunder, or economic miracle, was a shallow and crass materialism, which masked a deep inner despair and nihilism. The filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder was certainly no hero or moral model, but he did have enough good sense to state years ago that Germany was losing its soul. Rank corruption is now endemic in the "respectable" German parties, the very people who saw fit and still see fit to stand in judgement upon Günther for his involvement with the "extreme" NPD.

It's not just a matter of Chancellor Kohl with his slush fund and sell-off of state assets in the former DDR to foreign speculators. Many fools thought that the Social Democrat Government would clean up public life, but this Government already has seen four ministerial resignations, including most recently that of transport Minister Reinhard Klimmt following an embezzlement conviction.

Exemplars of "democracy"

Consider the even more apt discovery that many system politicians are "high" on drugs, which would, I suppose, explain a great deal. When samples were submitted to independent analyst Professor Fritz Surgel, traces of cocaine were found in 22 out of 28 lavatories in the Reichstag. Apparently the heavy pressures of globalisation and the responsibility of running the US and EU vassal state of Federal Germany are driving the poor parliamentarians to illegal narcotics. German taxpayers - this is your marks at work!

Even before his 1995 arrest, Günther had to cope with a good deal of officially sponsored surveillance and harassment. State prosecutors and political Police went to farcical lengths to entrap him. The police and judiciary were especially keen to track down every single copy of the video of Fred Leuchter's Weinheim speech. Surprisingly, a court later ordered the destruction of all the "offending" Leuchter videos. Surely it's only logical to conclude that any "truth" that cannot stand up to free inquiry is no truth at all! Like Günther, the hapless and innocent Fred Leuchter has also been subject to persistent harassment and been deprived of his livelihood.

History may be cynically defined as a collection of officially-approved fables, but in Germany official "history" has the force of law. Even semi-establishment British academic historians like Eric Hobsbawm or Norman Stone would face jail in Germany for those parts of their writings which express scepticism over the officially-sanctioned figure of six million being killed in the "holocaust".