ZGram - 4/24/2003 - "Reform Club moves to expel friend of Holocaust denier"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGRAM - WHERE TRUTH IS DESTINY:  NOW MORE THAN EVER!

April 24, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Remember Gretta?  Now Europe has another Gretta of sorts - a lady 
(literally!) who says out loud what few men dare to think:

[START]

The Independent

------------------------------------------------------------------------
London, Wednesday, April 23, 2003


Reform Club moves to expel friend of Holocaust denier

By Ian Burrell

Media and Culture Correspondent

A former fashion model who married into aristocracy is facing 
expulsion from one of Britain's most historic private clubs over 
accusations of anti-Semitism.

Lady Renouf of Kensington, the former wife of the late New Zealand 
financier Sir Frank "The Bank" Renouf, has been described as "unfit" 
to be a member of the Reform Club, in Pall Mall in London.

The Reform was established 160 years ago as a bastion of liberal and 
progressive thought. Past members have included the writers Henry 
James, H G Wells, E M Forster and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

But not all literary figures are welcome. Lady Renouf's decision to 
invite to the club David Irving, the historian who was denounced by a 
High Court judge in 2000 as a racist, an anti-Semite and a falsifier 
of history, had already caused outrage among many fellow Reform 
members.

Lady Renouf, who is in her fifties, has maintained that Irving has a 
right to freedom of speech. But an article published in The 
Independent on Sunday this month, highlighting her presence at an 
American conference of extreme right-wingers, may mean she has 
finally to bid farewell to the Reform. The article, written by Johann 
Hari, recounted his meetings with Lady Renouf at the Irvine Marriott 
Hotel in Orange County, California, where the conference took place 
last summer. She told Hari:

"People act as though Judaism is just another religion like 
Christianity or Islam. It's not. It's a creed of domination and 
racial superiority."

She said she was "firm friends" with Irving and had for two and a 
half months attended every day of the court case where the historian 
sued the American academic Deborah Lipstadt, after she denounced him 
as a "Holocaust denier". Irving spectacularly lost the case and was 
landed with costs of about £2m.

When Lady Renouf said goodbye to Hari in the hotel lobby she told him:

"It's so good to see that so many young people are getting involved 
in our movement and seeing the truth about the Jews."

. THE Reform Club has a reputation for tolerance. But this was seen 
as a step too far and signatures were collected for a requisition for 
expulsion.

Lady Renouf grew up in Australia as Michele Mainwaring and she was 
crowned Miss Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1968. Her current 
interests include acting and studying "the psychology of religion". 
When she met Sir Frank she told him she was "Countess Griaznoff", the 
ex-wife of a Russian nobleman.

They quickly married, in 1991, when the financier was 72 and she was 
44. She stated on her marriage certificate that her father was dead.

But during their six-week honeymoon in Australia, Sir Frank learnt 
that he did have a father-in-law after all -- a New South Wales truck 
driver called Arthur. Michele and Sir Frank got divorced. But Michele 
kept her title.

With her looks, her name and her quirky academic interests, Lady 
Renouf became a prominent figure on London's intellectual party 
circuit. But her world could unravel next month when the Reform 
Club's general committee meets to consider her expulsion.

[END]