Swiss authorities have ruled that neo-Nazis are unwanted on Swiss territory, and are prohibited from entering the country, despite the fact that Switzerland has no written law prohibiting racist and anti-Semitic propaganda.
The decision ends the appeal of Henri Roques and Pierre Guillaume, French revisionist historians who were expelled from Switzerland last year after they held a meeting in Geneva to support the activities of Lausanne schoolteacher Mariette Paschoud.
Like Roques and Guillaume, Paschoud has denied the existence of the gas chambers used by the Nazis to exterminate Jews during World War II. Paschoud lost her teaching job as a result of her views.
A movement has begun in Swiss political circles to introduce legislation that would prohibit neo-Nazi and racist activity, as already exists in Germany and France. On Sunday, vandals in Lausanne defaced a Holocaust memorial in front of a synagogue.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.