Gerard Menuhin

Gerard (Smithy)[1] Menuhin (born 1948[2] in Scotland)[1][3] is a British–Swiss journalist, writer, author, novelist,[4][5] film producer, and prominent conservationist.[6] He is the son of Jewish parents, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and dancer Diana Rosamund Gould, and brother of Pianist Jeremy Menuhin. He is a Holocaust denier, releasing his holocaust denial book in 2015, Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil.

Background

Born in July[1][3] 1948[2] in Scotland, United Kingdom,[1][3] he is the son of Jewish parents, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and dancer Diana Rosamund Gould.

He attended Eton College, completing his studies at Stanford University in California.

The brother of Pianist Jeremy Menuhin,[7] Gerard decided that he didn't want to follow in the footsteps of his father or brother and decided to enter into acting. In London's Mermaid Theatre, he landed a role in the Erich Kästner-piece "Emil and the Detectives ".[8]

He has worked in New York, London and Paris in the film industry, among other things, as a film producer at United Artists.

In December 1970, at the age of 22, along with his father, they temporarily lost their American citizenship.[9]

In 1983 Gerard married Eva Struyvenberg, daughter of Albert Struyvenberg.[10][11]

In 1985 he published his first book, a novel, Elmer, but it was panned by critics.[12]

In 1990 he and Eva had one child together, Maxwell Duncan Menuhin, but later divorced.[10][11]

He was, until November 2005, the CEO of the German chapter of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

He is representative of the Menuhin family on the Board of the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in Gstaad, Switzerland.

In June 2007 he took up the post as president of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Grenchen, Switzerland.[13]

Since 2009, there is no indication to be found of Menuhin's continuing administrative position with the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.[14][15]

He works for Menuhin IP Management GmbH (Menuhin IP Management Ltd liab Co) (Menuhin IP Management Sàrl) in Schöfflisdorf[14] which owns the official Yehudi Menuhin website.[16] The content of the website, however, is controlled by two of Yehudi Menuhin's other children, Jeremy Menuhin and Zamira Menuhin Benthall, as directors of SYM Music Company Limited.

Controversy

Like his grandfather, Moshe Menuhin (the great great grandson of Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Hassidism).,[17] he is an anti-Zionist Jew.

Until 2005 his political views had barely registered with the outside world even though he has a regular column in the Munich-based ultra-nationalist National Zeitung. One of his more vitriolic columns condemned Jewish "souvenir hunters" who gather evidence in Germany to help them to lodge financial claims for wartime persecution.

Because Gerard had made a number of right-wing extremist or nationalistic utterances he was relieved on 12 November 2005 by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Germany of his duties as chairman.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] The managing director of the Foundation, Winfried Kneip had levied against Menuhin an allegation of "xenophobic attitude". They disapproved of "naming our foundation and their action in a media institution which [...] is the 'right-wing extremist environment' attributable'". Attracted by press reports, among others, Spiegel Online had experienced the Foundation that Gerard Menuhin the National Zeitung had given interviews, there as an author of a column of the title "Menuhin and how he sees the world" acts and also in the NPD newspaper Deutsche Stimme (German Voice) expresses.[18][20][28]

In 2005, he was fired from his position as chairman of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation after giving an interview in the Deutsche Stimme (German Voice) newspaper. In November 2005, as reported by The Times,[27] he "outed himself as a clear sympathiser with the neo-Nazi cause" in two interviews he gave. "In Deutsche Stimme,[28] voice of the National Party of Germany, he used classical anti-Semitic language while still staying within the boundaries of German law."

"An international lobby of influential people and organisations is trying to keep the Germans under pressure," he said. "Some nations – mainly America, but other Europeans, too – are profiting from an obedient Germany... Those claiming to speak in the name of (Holocaust) victims have better networks than those representing other groups of survivors. Just think of the survivors of murdered Cambodians, American Indians or the Armenians. I am not the only Jew who thinks in this way..."

It was unfair, he said, that Germany should continue to be punished for its Nazi past. "The main tool of this endless blackmail was supplied by the Germans themselves, although the tainted period of 12 years really was only 12 years in over 2,000 years of immaculate development."

On the need for a greater role for the far Right: “The radical parties have to speak a clear language, offer alternatives, especially now that the parties of the centre are virtually indistinguishable and lack courage or solutions . . .”

On the EU: “The European Union has swollen to gigantic proportions — a monster that is swallowing vast sums, most of which are paid for by Germany”

In an interview with the National Zeitung, organ of the German Peoples’ Union, Menuhin called on Germans to stop paying taxes and thus protest at the outflow of German funds to the European Union.

“People cannot be eternally exploited in this way,” he said, “as long as there is a budget deficit, no German public money should flow abroad.”

He also called on Germans to stop paying taxes and thus protest at the outflow of German funds to the European Union. “People cannot be eternally exploited in this way,” he said, “as long as there is a budget deficit, no German public money should flow abroad.”[27][28]

In his regular column with the Nationale Zeitung newspaper, Gerard condemned Jewish “souvenir hunters” who gather evidence in Germany to help them to lodge financial claims for wartime persecution.

“Apart from a few curious comments about America, we weren’t really aware of his politics,” Winfried Kneip, YMF's chief executive, said.

Gerard soon after made a statement regarding his removal from the position at the foundation.[29]

Given the Jewish origin of the family and of the humanist Yehudi Menuhin's commitment, the public response to the forced resignation Gerard Menuhin at home and abroad was considerable. Because of the threat of Credit Suisse, ultimately as an important sponsor of the foundation set support, Menuhin joined in June 2007 as president of the Swiss Menuhin Foundation Grenchen with regard to the continued existence of the institution back. Gerard Menuhin told his brother Jeremy had promised to take up the post.[30]

In November 2014, Israeli media referred to him as an example of a "Jewish anti-Semite" and "anti-Israel extremist." Stating, "Gerard authored columns in the National-Zeitung, a paper infamous for its neo-Nazi and right-wing extremist ideas. He has also provided a fiercely anti-Israel interview with the pro-Iranian regime extremist German-languate website, Muslim-Markt."[31][32]

Holocaust denial

In his 2015 book, Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, which in early 2015 was banned from Amazon,[33] the second in English,[34] Menuhin wrote:

“The Holocaust is the biggest lie in history. Germany has no blame for the Second World War.”

He states of the Holocaust, "A good lie takes time to plan, and this was a very good lie."[35] Further that, "Evidently, the whole Jewish edifice stands or falls on the perpetuation of this lie." [36] and that it is a "leading lie."[37]

He also makes a case for Adolf Hitler being the only statesman in the modern era who could have liberated the enslaved people of planet Earth from the clutches of organized world Zionism. He writes:

“I suppose it began with a sense, nothing more. Not even a vague sentiment, let alone the certitude that what the average child is taught about major historical events is a pack of lies. It was just a lurking mental itch. My father never spoke of the war, any more than he spoke of anything negative or disagreeable or, indeed, about the past at all, if he could help it."[38]... "I never gave the subject much thought, occupied as I was with my daily drudgery, until the Nineties, when, while I was ordering the contents of my deceased grandparents' house, I chanced on a copy of the National Zeitung, the patriotic German newspaper to which my grandfather had contributed a column for several years during the Sixties."[39]... "Due to the exceptional nature of the twelve years of National Socialism, a large and growing body of lurid fiction and alleged fact has materialized, based on its dramatic superficialities rather than on any study or comprehension of its socialist policies, and inspired by a particular agenda. Sobriety rejects sensationalism. A perusal of reputable historical sources, some of them quite hard to find, helped me to form my own opinion. The most powerful persuasion, however, did not come from the rather dry accounts in my reading, but from the perfectly straightforward deduction that a people with the traditions and culture of the Germans did not almost overnight become barbarians and commit mass murder."[40][41]

Of the validity of his book, he writes, "Historians, however biased, are professional ledger-keepers of the past. I am not one of them, and this is not intended to be a formal rebuttal of commonly accepted narratives. It is a purely personal record, and I am accountable to no one for my opinions."[42]

On the question of the Holocaust and denial laws, he writes:

"Alone the fact that one may not question the Jewish “holocaust” and that Jewish pressure has inflicted laws on democratic societies to prevent questions—while incessant promotion and indoctrination of the same averredly incontestable ‘holocaust’ occur—gives the game away. It proves that it must be a lie. Why else would one not be allowed to question it? Because it might offend the “survivors”? Because it “dishonors the dead”? Hardly sufficient reason to outlaw discussion. No, because the exposure of this leading lie might precipitate questions about so many other lies and cause the whole ramshackle fabrication to crumble."[37]

"Jewish huckstering is most obviously apparent in its frenzied compulsion to uphold the “holocaust” myth, whose exposure would not only refute the Jews’ claim to Palestine and to endless financial reparations and atonement for harm not done to them, it would also deliver Jews and their minions to the fury of a world deceived and victimized for centuries by their lies and conspiracies."[43]

"Those ultimately responsible for this hopeless situation have succeeded in their conspiracy: they have created, with the aid of “holocaust” professionals and propaganda, the necessary climate of guilt whereby never-ending legal as well as illegal immigration goes unchallenged, resulting in a fractured society, civil unrest and inadequate social funds. The desired massive debt is therefore programmed. Jewish influence has achieved the dissolution of a once cohesive community."[44]

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 4 , The Milwaukee Journal, 29 April 1949
  2. 1 2 Fragen & Antworten: Interview mit Gerard Menuhin
  3. 1 2 3 , Toledo Blade, 29 April 1949
  4. Young Musician Caught the Eye of Yehudi Menuhin, The Argus-Press, 29 March 1985
  5. A Chinese Fascination, Mary Campbell, The Free Lance-Star, 5 April 1985
  6. Lady Menuhin: Gifted dancer who complemented the life of her brilliant husband, Humphrey Burton, The Guardian, 7 February 2003
  7. "Another Son Is Born To Yehudi Menuhin". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 3 November 1951. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  8. Berufliches: Gerard Menuhin, Der Spiegel, 14 December 1960
  9. State Department Warning: Famed Violinist Told Citizenship in Danger, Tad Szulc, Eugene Register-Guard, 4 December 1970 (New York Times News Service)
  10. 1 2 Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, volume 2, page 1907. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999.
  11. 1 2 http://www.thepeerage.com/p23823.htm#i238224
  12. Irony without humour, Ian Murray, Glasgow Herald, 20 April 1985.
  13. Menuhin president bows to pressure, Solothurn Tagblatt / Espace Media Groupe, 8 June 2007. Der unsichtbare Elefant im Raum by Gerard Menuhin
  14. 1 2 http://www.moneyhouse.ch/fr/p/Gerard-Menuhin
  15. https://alisonchabloz.wordpress.com/tag/menuhin-festival-gstaad/
  16. http://menuhin.org/about
  17. Review by Henry G. Fischer of The Menuhin Saga, by Moshe Menuhin, in The Link – Volume 17, Issue 5, Americans for Middle East Understanding December 1984,
  18. 1 2 Der unsichtbare Elefant im Raum by Gerard Menuhin
  19. Right-wing views troubles Menuhin, United Press International, 15 November 2005
  20. 1 2 Neonazi-Gesinnung: Yehudi-Menuhin-Stiftung trennt sich von Vorstand, Paul Nellen, Der Spiegel, 12 November 2005
  21. Tabubruch bei "Vanity Fair": Der Nazi, der Jude und das Prinzip Eitelkeit, Henryk M. Broder, Der Spiegel, 4 November 2005
  22. Der Schicksals-Vater, Joachim Kronsbein, Der Spiegel, 2005
  23. Menuhin Stiftung entläßt Gerard Menuhin, DPA, Die Welt, 14 November 2005
  24. Falscher Trost für Deutsche: Der Fall Gerard Menuhin, Thomas Assheuer, Die Zeit, 17 November 2005
  25. Sohn von Yehudi Menuhin veröffentlichte Texte in echtsextremen Organen, Editorial Staff, Der Standard, 13 November 2005
  26. Violinist’s son fired for remarks, Berlin (JTA), Cleveland Jewish News, 17 November 2005
  27. 1 2 3 Menuhin’s son forced to resign over ‘anti-Semitic’ interviews, Roger Boyes, The Times, 15 November 2005
  28. 1 2 3 Deutsche und Juden – Zu den Ufern der Vernunft: Gerard Menuhin über Vergangenheit und Zukunft des deutsch-jüdischen Verhältnisses (cached), Deutsche Stimme, November 2005
  29. Pressemitteilung: Stellungnahme von Gerard Menuhin. zum Vorgehen des Vorstands der Yehudi Menuhin Stiftung
  30. Menuhin president bows to pressure, Solothurn Tagblatt / Espace Media Groupe, 8 June 2007
  31. Analysis: Making sense of Germany’s anti-Semitic ‘Toiletgate’ scandal, Benjamin Weinthal, The Jerusalem Post, 16 November 2014
  32. Muslim-Markt interviewt Gerard Menuhin, ehemaliger Vorstandsvorsitzender der Yehudi Menuhin Stiftung, Muslim-Markt, 14 February 2006
  33. Alvarez, Santiago; Tell the Truth – and Get Busted, Smith's Report, no. 219, February 2016, pp. 1f.
  34. Gerard's first book in English, Elmer (Hutchinson, 1985) was panned by critics. Irony without humour, Ian Murray, Glasgow Herald, 20 April 1985. It was his publisher, The Barnes Review, that first made the mistake that Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil was his first English book via their 23 December 2015 email news update. Due to this it has been widely publicized on far-right nationalist websites that Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil was his first book in English. These websites got the information from the Philosophers Stone website, whom were the first to put the Barnes Review email newsletter online: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=7024 (Barnes never actually made the statement online, only via email) and everyone picked it up from the Philosophers Stone website. Clearly the Philosophers Stone website made their story from the email as it is an exact copy. The email was sent 23 December and that is the date the Philosophers Stone website put it online. The Elmer book (first published in 1985) may have originally been in German, but was also published in 1985 by Hutchinson in English. It may be a translation, it may not, but either way it was his first work in English. No records show Elmer to have been published in German.
  35. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 26
  36. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 32
  37. 1 2 Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 303
  38. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 6
  39. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 8
  40. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 8-9
  41. Der Sohn des Jahrhundert-Geigers Yehudi Menuhin erzeugt ein Jahrhundert-Beben der größten Lüge der Menschheitsgeschichte, NJ-Autoren, National Journal, 12 December 2015
  42. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 45
  43. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 456
  44. Menuhin, Gerard; Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, The Barnes Review, paperback, October 2015. p. 171

External links

Bibliography

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