Ernst Zündel: interviews Ingrid Rimland 1998 (1:43:43)

Ernst Zundel interviews Ingrid Rimland 1998.

In this video, (One hour and 43 minutes) Ernst Zundel (1939-2017) interviews Doctor Ingrid Rimland,  in 1998.  An attractive, elegant, and highly intelligent lady, she is the author of many prize winning books, such as the Wanderers and her trilogy, Lebensraum.  She was born in the Ukraine in 1936 into a Mennonite family, who were of German origin. Fleeing religious persecution, the Mennonites left Germany in large numbers to the Russian Empire, after Catherine the Great invited them to settle in the decade following 1770. Ingrid speaks a number of languages. Ingrid tells Ernst of her remarkable life growing up in a German speaking community in the Ukraine, immigrating to Paraguay and finally to the United States. Ingrid tells Ernst of the severe oppression, the Mennonites suffered, when the Communists took power in the Ukraine. The Mennonites were subjected to severe mistreatment, due to their German origins, their religious beliefs and their pacifism. In 1941, after the Axis forces attacked the USSR in a pre-emptive strike , the Communists increased their attacks on the Mennonites. The mainly Jewish NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) took many Mennonites away, deporting some to Siberia, and executing some. The Ukrainians also suffered severely, and large numbers of Ukrainians were murdered by the NKVD, over 9,000 in Vinnitsa alone.  On the arrival of the German troops, many Mennonites and Ukrainians joined their ranks, especially in the SS. The German Mennonites were hard-working, industrious, religious, pacifist and very clannish. The Mennonites were very successful in farming and business. Ernst asks Ingrid about her life, her upbringing, her religious beliefs, and her strong sense of race and group loyalty. Ingrid tells Ernst that the Mennonites were regarded with awe by the locals who called them kleine Schatztruhen (little treasure chests).  Three years later, Ernst and Ingrid were married in 2001. Ingrid sadly passed away in 2017, two months after her beloved Ernst. May they rest in peace.