François Genoud

François Genoud (26 October 1915 – 30 May 1996) was a noted Swiss financier, Nazi sympathizer, and supporter of Middle Eastern militant groups during the post-World War II 20th century.

In 1992, Genoud told a London newspaper "My views have not changed since I was a young man. Hitler was a great leader, and if he had won the war, the world would be a better place today."

Early life Genoud was from Lausanne, Switzerland. He met Adolf Hitler in 1932 as a teenager in a hotel while studying in Bonn. He joined the pro-Nazi National Front in 1934, and two years later he travelled to Palestine where he met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin el-Husseini. Working for both Swiss and German intelligence agencies, Genoud travelled extensively in the Middle East.

World War II Genoud travelled to Berlin frequently during the war "to see his friend the Grand Mufti," and visited him afterward many times in Beirut. The Grand Mufti allegedly "entrusted Genoud with the management of his enormous financial affairs".

Nazi hunters such as Serge Klarsfeld and Simon Wiesenthal, journalist David Lee Preston, and others have asserted that his role as a benefactor for surviving National Socialist interests goes much deeper, offering evidence that Genoud was no less than the principal financial manager of the hidden Swiss assets of the Third Reich after World War II.

Friendship with Paul Dickopf That Paul Dickopf became Interpol Head is connected with his friendship with Francois Genoud, because Genoud lobbied Arab governments to help him achieve the role. The implications are understood to include that when the Munich massacre occurred in 1972, Interpol limited its investigation into it, with a spokesman from Interpol stating that, "Interpol was an agency designed to handle criminal, not political matters." When creating “Hitlers politisches Testament” (a forgery ), he likely attributed pro-Arab statements to Hitler in order to fit his agenda of support for Arab Terrorism. (He was also heavily involved with Hitler’s Table Talk, possessing most of the revised Bormann notes in question.)

Algerian Liberation Front While in Egypt in the 1950s, through contacts in Gamal Abdel Nasser's government,

Palestine In the 1960s, Genoud began supplying arms for Palestinian causes. The Lausanne-based New European Order organisation, He financed the defense of Bruno Bréguet during the 1970s after a bombing mission in Israel in 1970. The PFLP called for the release of both Bréguet and Leila Khaled, part of the Che Guevara Commando Unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, together in 1970. Genoud helped Ilich Ramírez Sánchez in 1994,

He was closely associated with Ali Hassan Salameh, providing him medical care,

Among the people with whom he came into contact was the Sephardic Italian-Egyptian Communist Henri Curiel. It is unclear whether there was any financial relationship between them, although they shared an interest in the Algerian cause.

In 1993, a bomb exploded outside his home and by 1996 Swiss authorities were still investigating him for his financial activities during the Third Reich. He explained his decision to the group by stating that a "psychological illness" had made it impossible for him to endure life since the death of his second spouse, Elisabeth, in 1991. It has been speculated that he was also motivated by the desire to escape a forthcoming investigation of Swiss-Nazi financial contacts or simply by his declining health, as he was unlikely to live long in any case.

In popular culture In the miniseries Carlos, Genoud is mentioned by Ilich Ramírez Sánchez's character portrayed by Édgar Ramírez. The production has been criticized for downplaying the historical role of Genoud with Sánchez.