Germar Rudolf
Germar Rudolf is perhaps the most important addition to the worldwide Holocaust denial movement during the 1990s. He is young, comes from a respectable background, had no obvious far-right affiliations, and most importantly, unlike most Holocaust deniers, and in particular Fred Leuchter, has an academic qualification in a field relevant to his claims. Rudolf studied at the University of Bonn from 1983 to 1989, with the primary study area in electrochemistry. In 1990 he commenced a doctorate at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart in natural sciences; however, rudolf was expelled from the insitution for, amongst other matters, his use of the institute's letterhead for his activities in the Holocaust denial moevement. Rudolf's first political activity started when he joined the German Republikaner (Republican) Party in 1985. Whilst Rudolf claims that at the time the party was considered to be conservative rather than extreme in nature, the truth lies elsewhere. He left the party, only to join again a few years later, before again leaving it. During his trial in 1994, the presiding judge stated that this was because Rudolf realised that he could not achieve his extreme aims from within the party's ranks. Rudolf's entry into the Holocaust denial movement occurred as a result of his involvement with Otto Ernst Remer, a former SS general who was instrumental in defeating the putsch attempt against Hitler in July 1944. Remer was the defendent in a trial, and Rudof was commissioned to produce a pseudo-scientific report that would 'prove' that the gas chambers at the Auschwitz camps were physical impossibilities, thereby 'demonstrating' that they did not exist. |
Full name: Germar Rudolf (former married name: Germar Scheerer)