Mocking up a little Genocide

But what is important here is that games are "overwhelmings." As a person begins to be unwilling to overwhelm he, of course, begins to be unwilling to win . . . The primary overwhelming is to take space.

L. Ron Hubbard
"Scientology's Most Workable Process,"
17 April 1956

Before the IRS recognized Scientology as tax exempt for religious purposes, the "Church of Scientology - Ministry of Public Relations" published an undated booklet, "The Character of the Church of Scientology," which contains "Scientology: A Religion," by L. Ron Hubbard. In that booklet Hubbard stated that "genocide has been practiced against Scientology" by its critics. (See holohoax.htm#1.)

This web page, "Scientology's German Genocide Survivors Speak Out," is intended to demonstrate how Hubbard's definition of genocide was later applied to overwhelm Germany's federal and state intelligence agencies of the "Office for the Protection of the Constitution" and various "Interior," i.e., domestic surveillance, agencies. These "overwhelmings" have also been used both in court decisions and in public media to political and other advantages for Scientology.

The primary source of information of this Lermanet page is "The Rise of Hatred & Violence in Germany," which was published "as a public service" by Freedom Magazine (a successor to the above-mentioned "Church of Scientology - Ministry of Public Relations"), no date given, and funded "by a grant from the International Association of Scientologists" according to a label affixed to page 108 of that publication. The 8 1/2 x 11-inch book is 3/8 inch thick, and includes a table of contents, a 3-page introduction and 167 numbered pages of text.

The applicability of Hubbard's definition can be discerned at the end of the 4th paragraph in the Introduction to this primary source document:

Introduction

THE HUMAN COST OF HATE

0ver the last several years, the Church of Scientology and its investigative journal, Freedom, have documented many human rights violations against minorities in modern Germany. While world media attention to this problem has increased in recent years, the fact is German government officials have fomented discrimination against the Church of Scientology for more than two decades.

Today, however, virtually all minority religions and racial groups have become targets of government-fostered oppression and xenophobia.

This information has been made broadly known by the Church of Scientology through a public education campaign that has included booklets in English and German editions, public service messages in newspapers such as The New York Times and Washington Post, and exposure in the pages of Freedom.

The tactics of the hatemongers have been simple: dehumanize minorities in the eyes of other Germans, ostracize them, and subject them to a relentless campaign of unconstitutional, illegal and oppressive actions with the purpose of wiping them out. (emphasis added)

Ostensibly as proof of genocidal intent, Freedom magazine staff produced articles on:

Credit for the black-and-white pictures of these individuals is given in the contents page to James Sorensen.

If Hubbard's definition of genocide does indeed apply to the above individuals, then the two dozen people described above truly are . . .

Scientology's Genocide Survivors in Germany.

With the conviction of people who knew they were in the right despite any evidence to the contrary, a group of Scientologists organized under the banner of Scientology to pursue a public relations campaign. The purpose of this campaign was to enlighten those who were not yet aware that "genocide has been practiced against Scientology" in Germany.

In order to make the genocide argument more palatable to the uninitiated, a historical sequence was laid out:

1. German Nazis in the 1930s,
2. German neo-Nazis in the 1990s,
3. German hostility to foreigners in the 1930 and 1990s, and
4. German non-acceptance of Scientologists.

While the Scientologists heavily steeped the Germans' attitude toward them in genocidal analogies, they presented their own opposition to that attitude as efforts to eradicate "violations of human rights and civil rights in Germany" (All further quotes are from "The Rise of Hatred & Violence in Germany," unless otherwise noted). The unmistakable intent was to present the Germans as recidivist Nazis, with the Scientologists purportedly busily engaged in stamping out recidivist anti-Jewish sentiment. The motivation for doing this appeared to be a sense of self-survival:

Scientologists ... have been beaten, assaulted and threatened with death. Their businesses have been blacklisted, their homes, cars and other property vandalized.

The following is one variation in the genocide principle. Human rights, as opposed to human beings, are presented as the innocent victims of a postulated boundless Germanic savagery:

... the savage assault to destroy individual rights in Germany knows no bounds. [...] The human cost of such an onslaught - unchecked and even incited by German officials - is incalculable.

The following testimony from Scientology's German genocide survivors is unverified. Generally speaking, the testimonies can be assumed to have some basis in fact. However their reliability suffers greatly due to procedural errors. For instance, the testimonies were reduced to hearsay by Freedom writers. Specifics by which accusation of culpability could have been verified are missing. For instance, it cannot be seen from the articles whether the unnamed alleged perpetrators were not perhaps disgruntled (former) members of the German Church of Scientology. (Two named alleged perpetrators are Renate Hartwig and Norbert Blum. They are linked to in the section entitled "Scientology's Genocide Perpetrators in Germany.") The lack of substantial and/or legal evidence in these testimonies in a publication which is otherwise so painstakingly and artistically compiled is conspicuous by its absence.

Testimony excerpts of Genocidal eradication, etc.

Otto Clausen

Without warning, employees who had earlier been warm and friendly began to snub [Clausen]. He received anonymous hate mail and was ostracized. He soon realized his decision to be a Scientologist had become a matter of personal integrity. [...] [Clausen] decided to become a staff member at the Church of Scientology in Hamburg and work to combat the bigotry he saw by informing the public of the truth about Scientology - a decision not without price.

In May 1992, while delivering a public lecture on Scientology in Bad Oldeslohe, his car - which bore a Dianetics sticker on the bumper -- was vandalized with red paint. Later that year, while conducting a public survey on the streets of Hamburg, he was stopped by city officials who attempted to deny him the right to do a survey because he was a Scientologist. In an effort to intimidate the Hamburg Church of Scientology itself, the same officials illegally levied heavy fines against the Church for this activity. The assaults soon became even more personal.

Working late one night at the Hamburg Church's public center in the suburb of Eppendorf, Mr. Clausen was confronted by two youths who entered the center and pretended to be interested in Scientology. Suddenly, one of them pulled a knife and asked Mr. Clausen if he was afraid of being killed.

Not intimidated, Mr. Clausen threw the intruders out and dismissed the incident as a regrettable example of teenage unruliness. But shortly afterward, the youths returned, breaking the front window, pushing over bookshelves and strewing books about the center. This time when Mr. Clausen attempted to stop the hoodlums, he received a face full of tear gas.

Stefan Erdtmann

For 18 months, Dr. Stefan Erdtmann and his wife had taken dancing lessons with a group of nine couples from Krepeld and nearby cities. [...] On the night of September 27, 1994, the Erdtmanns entered the room happily anticipating an enjoyable evening of dancing. What they found instead of the usual welcoming smiles of their friends were these same people glaring at them with condemnation. One of the group waved a hate-filled book by Renate Hartwig in the Ertdmanns' faces.

Hartwig, one of the most virulent hatemongers in Germany with almost 25 penal complaints against her for fraud, slander and incitement to hatred, had viciously targeted Dr. Erdtmann in her book. Two members of the dance group were poisoned by it and incited the others.

Acting as judge and jury, these two proceeded to expel the Erdtmanns from the dance group. Their reason? They said they had read in the book that the Erdtmanns used secret ways, perhaps "secret hypnosis," to influence others. The two members of the dance group also proclaimed that no one in the group would listen to anything the Erdtmanns had to say on their own behalf.

Despite these pronouncements, Dr. Erdtmann attempted to communicate the truth to the members of the group who were traumatized with fear over what they had read. He told them the true story of Hartwig's motives for writing the book. [See "Exposing Hatemongers at Work," page 83.]

Individually, members of the group agreed that in the entire 18 months of dancing and socializing together, the Erdtmanns had not once done any of the things Hartwig accused them of. Yet not one of the group would state this publicly, admitting they were "afraid of the consequences,"

Stefan Erdtmann and his wife were forced from the dance group through blind discrimination.

Golden Bough Musicians

Golden Bough is an American folk music group -whose members are Scientologists.

In 1990 the members of the group began to notice a series of discriminatory and slanderous articles published in several music magazines in Germany. The target of these articles was ARC Music, Golden Bough's record company and booking agency. The discrimination against ARC Music and Golden Bough followed a familiar pattern. One of the articles urged its readers to boycott the company and not purchase its records, CDs or cassette tapes, and not attend concerts of ARC Music artists. [...]

The members of Golden Bough say there has been an astonishing decline in their concert bookings from 1991 to the present. In 1991, they had 15 concert appearances in Germany. In 1992, the German tour fell to 12 dates. In 1993, the German tour consisted of five concerts, while in 1994 there were only two.

The numbers speak for themselves. Golden Bough has become yet another casualty in the widespread discrimination against Scientologists in Germany today.

Marianne Massaneck

[...] Mr. Denkhaus took [Ms. Massaneck] aside to a quiet corner and advised her that the Federal Minister of Labor, Norbert Blum was going to withdraw the licenses to operate private employment agencies from all members of the Church of Scientology. He informed her that the Federal Association for Personnel Procurement could no longer accept the membership of the company Ms. Massaneck worked for. He told her that because her license would also be canceled, she could not participate in the assembly.

Denkhaus added that the first point on the assembly's agenda was to have all Scientologists in the assembly stand up - at which time they would be told they were excluded from the meeting and would have to leave.

Ms. Massaneck was shocked by the planned pillorying of Scientologists. The company she worked for was not owned by a Scientologist, nor was it connected to the Church of Scientology in any way.

Mr. Denkhaus expressed regret but said that because she was the executive manager of the company, he would have to ask her and the company to leave the association - an act of expulsion unmerited, unjust and with no recourse.

Thomas Heiderhoff

A seller of books about the Scientology religion, Mr. Heiderhoff has been assaulted, castigated and threatened at gunpoint. His bookstands have been overturned many times, his books scattered in the streets by bigoted thugs. He has been assaulted, denigrated and threatened at gunpoint, yet Thomas Heiderhoff continues to exercise his constitutional right to practice his religious beliefs. Mr. Heiderhoff experiences the hatred and violence of prejudice in Germany every day, face to face. A staff member of the Church of Scientology, he sells books about Dianetics and the Scientology religion to people at outdoor public bookstands in Hanover.

His high visibility has made him a target of threats and personal violence. His bookstands have been overturned many times, his books scattered in the streets by bigoted thugs.

Though he has often been threatened with beatings, Mr. Heiderhoff always faces his opponents, stands his ground and refuses to be coerced into leaving.

Attacks take different forms, such as when a man pushed a loaded gun into his face. The man had stopped at his bookstand, and appeared to be browsing. He selected a book of quotations, and their looked up. "He said I should watch out or I would get a beating;" said Mr. Heiderhoff. "Then he passed by the bookstand again, pulled out a loaded gun, aimed it at me and told me to shut up."

Mr. Heiderhoff called the police, but the man was not arrested. Nevertheless, Mr. Heiderhoff considers himself fortunate. A friend of his, caught in a similar situation, had been shot in the face.

At other times, the police themselves have been the source of attack. Once, while selling books at an open-air market, a police officer approached Mr. Heiderhoff and demanded that he leave, When he insisted he had a constitutional right to distribute religious literature, the police officer threatened to overturn the stand and scatter his books in the street. Mr. Heiderhoff serves as yet another reminder that no one is safe from the campaign of discrimination - and how often even the authorities won't step in to protect the innocent targets.

After the personal testimonies, various celebrities come into play. One of Scientology's American celebrities is Chick Corea. The following is one of the most detailed accounts of what actually happened with Chick Corea in Germany.

"ARTISTIC CLEANSING" ...

"Last year, the internationally acclaimed American musician, Chick Corea, accepted an invitation to perform a state-sponsored concert in conjunction with the World Athletic Championships in Stuttgart. Just two weeks prior to the event, he was informed that the State of Baden­Wurttemberg would not allow him to perform due solely to his religious association with the Church of Scientology. Individual Members of Congress, members of the Congressional Hispanic, Black and Arts Caucuses, Human Rights Watch, Helsinki Watch, as well as prominent entertainers, such as Bill Cosby and B.B. King, have raised alarm over Mr. Corea's treatment with the German Ambassador to the United States, Immo Stabreit. The Helsinki Commission also published a report which addresses the issue.

"A few months ago, the Chick Corea Quartet returned to Germany as part of a European tour. Mr. Corea was invited to perform at the Opera House of Kassel, a state theatre in the German state of Hessen. As tickets went on sale, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art and other state officials publicly stated their desire to cancel the concert and criticized the state theatre for entering into a contract with an artist affiliated with Scientology. The state eventually pressured the German promoter organizing the concert to agree to add clauses in his contract forbidding Mr. Corea from `promoting' Scientology before, during or directly after his performance with any 'violation' making him liable for a penalty of 50,000 deutschemarks.

In trying to find outside references to the above, the concept one repeatedly runs into is that Chick Corea was "banned" or "prohibited" from playing in Germany. Although neither of those two words is used in the above, the account is formulated in such a way that a reader could conceivably walk away with this impression. The words "state-sponsored" is usually blatantly ignored, although this is a key phrase in understanding the reason the German government did not support a public appearance by Chick Corea in Germany in 1994. "State-sponsored" signifies general, including financial, support from the German state. The cancelling of Chick Corea's concert is a direct result of Corea's prior public appearances as a promoter of Scientology, especially in connection to Scientology's anti-German hate literature (including the source document "The Rise of Hatred & Violence in Germany).

Corea's value to Scientology is demonstrated in the use of celebrity names like B.B. King and Bill Cosby, who were posed in the above as supporters of Scientology against Germany. King and Cosby were probably approached by Scientology representatives seeking sympathy on the level of a fellow minority.

Scientology's Genocide Perpetrators in Germany.

Americans of Note

Willis Carto was later mentioned in this particular publication, but in a different context than when he was pictured "in the footsteps of the Nazis" with German Ursula Caberta in a Jan/Feb 1995 issue of Freedom magazine. Other Americans who were mentioned include:

Rick Ross:

"... was charged with $3.1 million damages for carrying out the deprogramming in violation of the victim's constitutional rights."

Cynthia Kisser:

" ... head of the U.S. hate group called Cult Awareness Network, has taken CAN into bankruptcy in the wake of a $1 million damages ruling against CAN for its part in a violent 'deprogramming.'"

the Cult Awareness Network itself:

"Many members of the Illinois-based anti-religious hate group called the 'Cult Awareness Network' have been arrested and brought to face charges for their coercive 'deprogramming' attempts against members of various religions."

and U.S. psychiatrist Louis West:

"... closely affiliated with the Cult Awareness Network, was an instigator of anti-religious hatred in Germany in the 1970s."

West, like Carto, was characterized as a "racist":

"'Jolly' West, in particular, is a known racist, who, for example, unveiled an Orwellian plan in 1972 which included electronic mind-control implants, chemical castration and psychosurgery to make 'troublesome minorities' more tractable. West's proposal died amid a storm of outrage from civil rights groups."

Not surprisingly, the Scientologists also found more than one connection between West, "the German government and its psychiatric masters."

Germans of Note

German Minister of Labor Norbert Blum (right), was characterized as

"a rabid anti-religionist and propaganda monger who improperly wages a hate campaign against members of the Scientology religion. He recently participated in a demonstration in egregious violation of the duties of his government office."

[. . .]

These unconstitutional efforts to wipe out the Scientology religion in Germany have continued to this day. (emphasis added to show genocide analogy.)

One of the government officials most active in attacking the Church of Scientology is Federal Minister of Labor Norbert Blum, a Catholic theologian, has issued vitriolic public statements attacking the Church of Scientology on many occasions. Even though he has never met with a representative of the Church, nor ever verified the veracity of any of his accusations, he had no scruples about decreeing discriminatory measures against Scientologists, which prohibited them from carrying out their chosen professions. (See Chapter 6 for more on Blum.)

[. . .]

Chapter 6

EXPOSING HATEMONGERS AT WORK

[image] Left, Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi Propaganda Minister. Right, Norbert Blum, current German Minister of Labor.

[. . .]

If anyone doubts that certain officials in the federal government are following down the same path traveled by their predecessors in the Third Reich, they need look no further than the Federal Minister of Labor, Norbert Blum. ...

Ursula Caberta

Unlike the above-mentioned Jan/Feb 1995 issue of Freedom magazine, Caberta was not associated with "racism" via American Carto, who operated at the time only a few blocks from the congressional buildings where this primary source material in all likelihood was being handed out, but via her own Minister of the Interior.

In 1991, Caberta pressured the Hamburg Senate to establish a "Working Group on Scientology" in the Ministry of the Interior. The then Minister of the Interior, Werner Hackmann, who had supported Caberta's bid to create this office, appointed her as its head. Hackmann's failure to curb racism among Hamburg police led to his resignation in September 1994, after it was discovered that he had deliberately failed to discipline police officers under his command who had viciously beaten up detainees because they were black.

Freedom publishing also faulted Caberta for her association with Robert Vaughn Young, an ex-Scientologist who was, in turn, faulted for his association with Willis Carto, whose categorization as a Nazi by a Jewish author was cited. A connection, outside of the Nazi-Jewish reference, between Carto and Svoray is lacking.

Caberta has also met extensively with American Vaughn Young, who travelled to Germany to assist her in her actions against Scientology. Young is a strange collaborator for a woman whose office is funded by the Hamburg government. He is an associate of Willis Carto, publisher of the American far-right magazine, Spotlight, and shares with Carto a pronounced enmity toward the Scientology religion. Scientology is not the only religion Carto vehemently opposes. Described by Jewish author Yaron Svoray as "the most notorious Nazi in the world," Carto has claimed that, "Our Enemy today is the same enemy of 50 years ago and before... The Jews came first and remain Public Enemy Number One. ... Hitler's defeat was the defeat of Europe. And America. How could we have been so blind?"

Also unmentioned is the fact that Carto also founded the Institute for Historical Review, which was being directed by Scientologist Tom Marcellus about the time Freedom released this publication.

Renate Hartwig

Renate Hartwig is the only German non-civil service critic of Scientology to be prominently mentioned in this publication. As with Blum and Caberta, a Nazi association is made with Hartwig by placing an unflattering portrait photograph of her as a semi-insert to a larger photo of an angry young man who is giving a Hitler salute.

Another primary hatemonger in Germany is Renate Hartwig, who runs an anti-­Scientology group called Robin-Direct in Ulm. Hartwig, whose favorite public positioning is that of a proper "Hausfrau," has a criminal record. Hartwig authored a book about Scientology in which she claimed to own a dog that could recognize Scientologists by their smell. In July 1994, an injunction was obtained forbidding the sale of this book owing to libelous statements it contained. The court ordered the book withdrawn from all bookstores. Appendix T. p. 155

Allegations in the book about Scientologists were found by the police in Tubingen to be a "pack of lies." Not so coincidentally, Hartwig had based many of her claims on statements made by the same discredited witness used by Ursula Caberta - Ms. Sautter, a woman serving a prison sentence for fraud, forgery and grand theft.

In fact, it is Caberta who made Hartwig "palatable" and used her as a spokesperson due to her capacity to spit out inflammatory propaganda. Hartwig and the publishing house Pattloch, owned by Catholic bishops, were fully aware of the mental condition of Sautter, having been informed of it by the police, yet used her fabricated claims to promote the book in a 2 million deutschemarks advertising campaign. As the reporter who revealed this information on SAT 1 TV stated, "The publishing house as well as the author have to accept the reproach that 140,000 copies sold means 140,000 defrauded readers." Hartwig's background is just as distasteful. While running a singles club, she defrauded an estimated 750,000 deutschemarks from clients of this service. She has allegedly engaged in tax evasion, malicious defamation, fraudulent bankruptcy declaration, industrial espionage and perjury.

Hartwig's criminality extends even to misappropriating funds intended for the burial of her second husband, who died in 1986. After 8 years, she still had not paid for the burial costs or the cost of the gravestone, although, according to the undertaker, she had received money from his life insurance policy which by law had to be spent on his funeral expenses.

Previously, local CDU politicians and the official "sect commissioner" of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hartmut Hauser, worked closely with Hartwig in efforts to stir up prejudice and hatred against the Church of Scientology. Exposure of Hartwig's criminal record has caused the CDU party to distance itself from Hartwig, although party officials have yet to denounce her or her actions.

Apparently her teachings have not reflected well on her own offspring. In a fairly recent incident, Hartwig's son cut off the arms of Jesus from a statue in a Christian Church.

Apparently no childish misconduct, even an offspring’s mischief in a completely unrelated incident, was too trivial if it could produce the effect of genocidal extermination in the reader’s mind.

The Technology Statement

The English version of the technology statement is presented in this publication as follows:

Bank Waiver: In direct violation of constitutional rights in Germany, banks demand that applicants for bank services sign a statement that they are not members of the Scientology religion.

To the Vereins- and Westbank AG DECLARATION

I do not work per the technology of L. Ron Hubbard or that of the Scientology Church (sic) and have not been trained per the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.
I neither intend to participate in the future training seminars held by the method of L. Ron Hubbard.
I am not a member of the International Association of Scientologists.
Place, Date Signature
Name: Address:

Because nothing else in the statement discriminates against a possible religion, the words that make the above statement a possible human rights violation are "or that of the Scientology Church." It is possible words to this effect were at one time inserted with the aid of Scientology itself. For a more detailed account of at least two version of the technology statement, AKA defense statement, AKA sect filter, see sights.htm.

Summary

In general, this book presents two points of view.

1. Scientologists are victims of genocide or near genocide in Germany
2. Scientologists avoided genocide only by exposing the perpetrators before any genocide or near genocide in Germany had actually taken place.

An implicit and no doubt unintended and undesired message is that if the Jews had taken measures in the 1930s like the Scientologists did in the 1990s, perhaps things could have turned out differently for them. This is undesired because it detracts from the overall message, and unwanted because there is little in common between the treatment in Germany of Jews in the 1930s and that of Scientologists in the 1990s.

The artificial comparison between Scientologists and Jews can be rated as a publicity stunt which was successful in sparking action among certain members of the U.S. Congress against Germany. The misunderstanding was worsened by these congressional representatives ignoring the fact that Scientology has not yet been acknowledged as religion in Germany. Apparently to sidestep this reality, it was necessary for the words "or belief" to be added to Senator Enzi's proposal for a "sense of the Senate with respect to government discrimination in Germany based on religion or belief."

The stunt was also successful in derailing effective measures against Scientology in Germany by promoting uncertainty and internal strife. Although the USA has to some extent realized the error of its ways, the Germans have a new public relations problem that makes Scientology pale by comparison. Prior to Scientology's presentation of the German government as a legacy of National Socialism, it would have been unthinkable for any dissident to use this tactic. It would have immediately been recognized for what it was, an exploitation of the Holocaust, and the dissidents publicly rejected amidst much shame. Since the Scientologists did not greatly suffer from that impediment, their tactic of Holocaust exploitation is now in use by other groups and seems to be on the verge of public acceptance in Germany.