Neo-Nazi on the run is hiding in Britain

Campaigners against anti-Semitism called for swift action to be taken last night against a neo-Nazi fugitive living in Britain.

Campaigners against anti-Semitism called for swift action to be taken last night against a neo-Nazi fugitive living in Britain.

Germar Rudolf has been living under a false name in this country, having fled Germany after being sentenced to 14 months for inciting racial hatred. He had not been held in custody. The 34-year-old had breached the country's "Holocaust denial" laws with writings that questioned whether millions of Jews had died in the gas chambers.

While in Britain he has maintained contact with far-right groups and published his revisionist theories on the Internet and via an operation he runs through a PO box in Hastings.

German police have had a warrant out for his arrest since he disappeared from his Stuttgart home in 1995.

His reappearance coincides today with government proposals for a Holocaust remembrance day being published in a Home Office consultation document. The plans, backed by Tony Blair, were first suggested by Andy Dismore, MP for Hendon, in a Private Member's Bill. Yesterday Mr Dismore, with Lord Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust, said Mr Rudolf should be extradited. Mr Dismore, a member of the Council Against Anti-Semitism, said: "I was horrified to hear about this man being in Britain. There are two issues here: one is whether this man is extraditable to Germany, and number two is whether what he's doing in the UK is a breach of UK law on inciting racial hatred, and if not why not."

Lord Janner added: "The German authorities should be informed straight away that this man is here, and invited to seek his extradition. The sooner he's out of this country the better."

Mr Rudolf, who has two children, has been living in this country with his family since 1996. Using his wife's maiden name, Scheerer, he has been living at a string of addresses in south-east England in Hastings, Pevensey Bay, and now Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Yesterday police said they had not been aware of Mr Rudolf's presence. "If any country has got a warrant out for someone, and that person is operating in our area, we would help them catch the person," said a spokesman for Sussex Police.

Mr Rudolf said yesterday that he had been in contact with members of the British National Party and the National Front, but denied being a member of any such group himself. He also said he had spoken to David Irving, the controversial historian whose books question accepted views of events in the Holocaust.

Mr Rudolf revealed that, after absconding from Germany when he was convicted on the first of three counts of inciting racial hatred, he had gone to Spain to stay with a former Nazi general. When he realised German officials were on his trail he came to Britain.