Michèle Renouf
Michele Renouf, (born 1946) is an Australian-born, British-based socialite, who came to the wider attention of the public when she sat at the side of David Irving during his legal action against the historian Deborah Lipstadt in 2000 and by subsequent Holocaust Denial activities.
Life
Born Michele Mainwaring, she became a model, dancer and beauty contestant, winning the title of Miss Newcastle 1968. Having studied Fine Art at the National Art School, she also obtained diplomas in Art and Education and became a lecturer in Fine Art and Media Studies at Queensland University of Technology. In 1970, she took residence in London where she became Countess Griaznoff by marriage.
She and Griaznoff were divorced in 1990, and in 1991, she married Sir Francis Renouf, an international financier who had helped reconstruct Germany’s post war banking system. As such she became Lady Renouf. The marriage ended in divorce the same year.[1]
Holocaust denial
Renouf has become increasingly known in recent years for her support of prominent Holocaust deniers and also for directly denying the Holocaust using barely disguised hate speech. In 2000 she was a daily presence at David Irving's court case, supporting Irving and more recently she attended the trials and other court hearings across Europe involving Ernst Zündel,[citation needed] Robert Faurisson[citation needed] and Germar Rudolf, supporting Holocaust deniers at each and every instance.[citation needed] In 2003, she was expelled from London's Reform Club for using the club's name in a letter that supported Irving and was sent to a newspaper.[1]
Renouf interest in the issues of World War II and the Holocaust stemmed from reading a piece in a newspaper about Irving's 2000 libel trial.[citation needed] She has stated, "I do not doubt they were victims. Or that the term as chosen by international Zionism for these victims is a Holocaust (a religious term meaning a sacrificial burnt offering in a Covenantal bargain to gain a literal Zionist state of Israel)."[1]. She has described Zionism as a "dangerous and hateful belief."[citation needed]. The European Jewish Congress has described her as an "anti-Semitic demagogue."[2]
She attended the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust in Iran in December, mostly attended by Holocaust deniers, 2006.[3] In her address to the Conference, extremist even by the Conference standarts, she accused Judaism as possessing a "dangerously misanthropic tendency" and "fundamentally anti-Gentile narcissism."[4] Earlier that year she produced the DVD Jailing Opinions, an analysis of the recent wave of Holocaust denial prosecutions in Europe, including the cases of David Irving, Ernst Zündel and Robert Faurisson.
References
- ^ a b This beauty's a right one. Sydney Morning Herald, February 24, 2006.
- ^ European Participants in the Tehran Holocaust Denial Conference. European Jewish Congress, December 12, 2006.
- ^ Iranian Holocaust Conference Will Showcase Deniers and Anti-Semites From Around the World; ADL Urges European Leaders to Speak Out. Anti-Defamation League, December 7, 2006.
- ^ Jailing Opinions