Pedro Varela Geiss
Spanish writer and revisionist historian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pedro Varela Geiss (born 9 October 1957) is a Spanish writer, bookseller and Holocaust denier. He was the owner of a Neo-Nazi bookstore in Barcelona that is now closed, and he describes himself as a “National Socialist” inspired by Adolf Hitler. He was also the former President of the disbanded Neo-Nazi group CEDADE to which the Belgian Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle belonged.
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Pedro Varela Geiss | |
|---|---|
Varela in an interview | |
| Born | 9 October 1957 Barcelona, Spain |
| Occupations | Bookseller, author, publisher |
| Known for | Holocaust denial |
Criminal charges | Convicted for Holocaust denial |
| Children | One |
Biography
Born in Barcelona,[1] he became the President of CEDADE in 1978,[2] publishing Holocaust denial material.[3]
In 1992, he spent three months in pre-trial detention in Austria for a Nazi speech that he gave, but he was acquitted. After the end of CEDADE, he opened the Libreria Europa bookstore in Barcelona, from which he promoted pro-Nazi speeches, conferences, lectures, and books on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.[4] In 1998, he was sentenced to five years in prison for justifying genocide because of the Holocaust denial material that he sold at his store.[5]
In 2010, he was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for the felony of "disseminating genocidal ideals".[6] He was released from prison on 8 March 2012.[7] He went back to run his bookstore. However, in July 2016, his bookstore was closed down for inciting hate speech and racial discrimination.[8]
Personal life
He has a daughter. He is a mountaineer and an enthusiast of Richard Wagner and his body of work. He is also a Roman Catholic and a vegetarian.