I sent Ewald Althans a message suggesting we meet in a coffee shop, not far from my East Berlin hotel. I thought it might be a more relaxed place in which to talk. He declined.
“I do not feel too comfy any more sitting in a cozy place having an intense talk about National Socialism, Hitler, Auschwitz, etc,” he texted back. “I suggest we have a nice long walk.”
I felt terribly naive. After all, he had a point. Sitting in a Berlin coffee shop, chatting openly about the Nazis, really might not be the best way to go. I
A Dutch tourist has been detained in Poland for giving the Nazi salute at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, local police say. The 29-year-old woman made the gesture in front of the Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free) gate. The woman - who has not.
Thirty years ago, Jay Rayner sat down for lunch with Ewald Althans, a Holocaust denier and rising star of the far right. So how did the former Nazi end up working in the arts and marrying his Taiwanese boyfriend?