John Gudenus or John, Graf von Gudenus (23 November 1940 – 15 September 2016) was an Austrian member of the
Federal Council of Austria
The Federal Council (german: Bundesrat, ) is the upper house of the Austrian Parliament, representing the nine States of Austria at the federal level. As part of a bicameral legislature alongside of the National Council, it can be compared wi ...
on a
free mandate (formerly as a member of the
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...
), and colonel of the Austrian Bundesheer.
Early life
Born into the noble
Gudenus family, he was born as the eldest child of
Johann Baptist Theodor Franz de Paula Philipp Maria, Graf von Gudenus (1908-1968) and his wife, Karin Giaver (1905-1980).
Biography
In 2006, Gudenus received a one-year suspended sentence for breaking the ''
Verbotsgesetz'', Austria's laws against denying or diminishing
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
.
Gudenus had suggested that it was necessary to verify the existence of gas chambers in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and later remarked that there had been gas chambers in Poland but not in Germany.
[
Austria's '']Der Standard
''Der Standard'' is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna.
History and profile
''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first edition on 19 October 1988. German media company Axel Sprin ...
'' newspaper argued that these two remarks were "cynical and humiliating", and show contempt for the ''Verbotsgesetz''.[
]
Personal life
On 12 August 1970 in Els, John Gudenus married Marie Louise Biloghan (b. 1951). They have four sons:
* Markus John Gudenus (b. 1974)
* Johann Baptist Björn Gudenus (b. 1976), FPÖ
The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"A ...
politician
* Jens Severin Gudenus (1983)
* Clemens Magnus Gudenus (1990)
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudenus, John
1940 births
2016 deaths
Members of the National Council (Austria)
Austrian untitled nobility
Austrian Holocaust deniers
People convicted of Holocaust denial