A BNP candidate in next week’s European elections has questioned the scale of the Holocaust and believes “dentistry and plastic surgery” were positives to come out of the concentration camps.
Marlene Guest, standing to represent Rotherham in the Yorkshire and Humber region, appeared in the Sky One documentary “BNP Wives”.
Leaders of Yorkshire’s Jewish communities have condemned her selection, calling it “horrendous and offensive”.
In the programme, broadcast in January 2008, Mrs Guest was asked about the Shoah and the number of people who died.
She says: “It’s sort of set in stone, six million, but we don’t really know how many do we? I've read a thing called 'Did Six Million Jews Really Die?’.
“If they'd have kept the crematorium going in this little camp for 24/7 for 50 years, they still couldn't have burnt that amount of bodies.
“I do maybe query the numbers.”
When asked why she thought the number of deaths was questionable she responds: “I don’t know, compensation? The Jews putting Germany on a guilt trip?
“The only good that came of it was what they gleaned from what they did. Didn’t they get a lot of dentistry and plastic surgery – they found out by what they did [the German experiments].”
Sheffield-based Holocaust survivor Agnes Grunwald-Spier said: “I am horrified that the BNP has selected Marlene Guest.
“By including such a candidate on their list, the BNP has demonstrated itself to be the fascist party we have always known it to be.”
Sue Dorsey, president of Leeds Jewish Representative Council, said: “It is the most horrendous and offensive thing to say. We are very concerned.
“I’m finding it hard to get through to some of our community. People say ‘don’t worry, the BNP won’t get in around here’, but they don’t understand how dangerous proportional representation can be.”
Other community representatives to sign a statement expressing horror at Mrs Guest’s selection were former MP Sir Irvine Patnick, vice president of Sheffield Jewish Congregation, and Ian Sugarman, chairman of Hull Reform Synagogue.