Michele Renouf
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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 failed legal action against the historian Deborah Lipstadt in 2000. The European Jewish Congress has described her as an "anti-Semitic demagogue".[1]
Born Michele Mainwaring, she became a model, dancer and beauty contestant, winning the title of Miss Newcastle 1968. Her first marriage was to Daniel Griaznoff, a descendant of Russian aristocracy, which, she claims, granted her the title of Countess.
In 1991 she entered into her second marriage, to tennis legend Sir Frank Renouf, when he was 72 and she was 44. The marriage collapsed after a few months when Sir Frank was informed about his wife's humble origins. Renouf had told Sir Frank that she was the ex-wife of a Russian nobleman and that her father was dead, only to have Sir Frank learn that, in fact, her father was a truck driver named Arthur and still very much alive.[1] Nevertheless, her marriage to Sir Frank allowed her to assume the title of "Lady Renouf".
Renouf has become increasingly known in recent years for her support of prominent Holocaust deniers. In 2000 she was a daily presence at David Irving's court case and in 2005 she attended the trial of the extremist Ernst Zündel in Germany. Lady Renouf claims she had no interest in the issues of World War II and the Holocaust until a piece in a newspaper about Irving's 2002 libel trial caught her eye. 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)."[2]
She has described Zionism as a "dangerous and hateful belief".[citation needed] Her attempt to get David Irving invited to the London's Reform Club led to Renouf being expelled from that institution in 2003.
She attended the Holocaust denial conference in Iran in December, 2006.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Her 1991 marriage to the late New Zealand financier Frank 'The Bank' Renouf ended quickly when he discovered some of her claims about her past were untrue. She had claimed her father was dead, but it turned out he was alive and well, a former truck driver from The Entrance in New South Wales. He also found her use of the name Countess Griaznoff was perhaps not warranted, even if she claimed the mother of her ex-husband was from Russian nobility." "This beauty's a right one", Sydney Morning Herald, February 4, 2006.
