Jürgen Graf (born 15 August 1951) is a Swiss author, former teacher and
Holocaust denier.
Since August 2000 he has been living in exile, and is currently living in Russia, working as a translator, with his wife.
Background
Born in
Basel, Graf studied
philology at the
University of Basel;
English,
Romance and
Scandinavian studies
Scandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining to ...
, and in 1979 completed his
licentiate.
Graf spent several years working as a
school teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
teaching languages and later taught German at a
Taipei school in
Taiwan.
On his return to Basel, he worked as interrogator of
asylum seekers
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and mi ...
at the receiving agency on the repurposed
Rhine cruise ship ''Basilea''. He described his experiences in his 1990 book ''The Ship of Fools'' (''Das Narrenschiff''), over which he was accused of
xenophobia.
By the early 1990s, Graf was a convert to
Holocaust denial, and was introduced to the field by his friend and retired school teacher Arthur Vogt through the works of
Serge Thion,
Arthur Butz
Arthur R. Butz is an associate professor of electrical engineering at Northwestern University and a Holocaust denier, best known as the author of the pseudohistorical book ''The Hoax of the Twentieth Century''. He achieved tenure in 1974 and curr ...
and
Wilhelm Stäglich
Wilhelm Stäglich (11 November 1916 – 5 April 2006) was a World War II army officer, . later a financial judge in Hamburg, and a prominent Holocaust denier.
Background
Born on 11 November 1916, he studied law and political science at the Uni ...
.
During the 1990s, Graf published several Holocaust denial works, his first titled ''The Holocaust on trial: Eyewitness accounts versus natural laws'' (''Der Holocaust auf dem Prüfstand: Augenzeugenberichte versus Naturgesetze''),
several of his later books co-authored with the Italian Holocaust denier
Carlo Mattogno.
Graf distributed his book to journalists and parliamentarians, establishing a reputation as a Holocaust denier. As the result, he was dismissed from his teaching position; he was later employed in a private school in Basel, teaching German to foreign students.
Graf's publications eventually led Swiss authorities to prosecute him for violating Swiss anti-racism laws.
Graf and his then publisher, Gerhard Förster, were tried by a Swiss court in July 1998; Graf was sentenced to a substantial fine and 15-months imprisonment.
He fled the country while awaiting his appeal, traveling through Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, ending in
Iran, where a group of Iranian Holocaust deniers sheltered him in
Tehran.
Graf subsequently relocated to Moscow, Russia, where he met and married a
Belarusian
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
woman in 2001.
He currently lives and works in Moscow as a translator.
References
External links
Official homepage
1951 births
Living people
Swiss expatriates in Russia
Swiss Holocaust deniers
Swiss exiles
Writers from Basel-Stadt
University of Basel alumni
Pseudohistorians
{{Switzerland-bio-stub