To be honest, I am sure they knew it. Just someone made a step to reveal it and they had no other chose then just get ride of him. There is always someone who knows something, but there is always something in there  why they don`t want to talk about it.  I am very much sure dean was aware of it.  You need only one strong person from out side of the group to bring out the truth The rest are weak or afraid of something stupid.

Right and left wing fanatic totalitarian regimes and philosophies are equally revolting, disrespecting humani values and unacceptable. But much less is heard about the left wing cases.....

Completely agree with Reltz666.

Yeah, that's probably because they don't go around advocating genocide...

Precisely.  And I love the way they say he hadn't made enough progress on his thesis. 

You must not be aware of Fox News, Sky News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, all owned by Rupert Murdoch.

These media organs report on "leftist outrages" on a regular basis, condemning "political correctness" wherever and whenever its gone amok. 

Underlines exactly my point of view. You have to refer to someone such as Rupert Murdoch in order to find some critism about "leftist outrages".

CAN WE PLEASE AVOID TALKING ABOUT NAZIS ?!

THANK YOU !

Val. correct me if Im wrong but extreme left wing is "communist"... and since when has the communist party been a advocate of human rights, either in China or the former USSR...

Under communist rule people are systematically taken "away"  quietly if they make trouble. Do this enough times, and it adds up.

May not be large scale genocide... but each straw adds the burden to a camels back.

Why, Medicis? Certainly the Swiss played enough of a role during the War for anyone involved in human rights or international law to still be slightly wary of this country's seeming lack of apology. 

Further on that matter, the UDC? I'm so sickk of their posters and campaigns that I think we should take it seriously when other political extremists come out of the woodwork.

@ Ariel

Just remember lastest threads...

All right, let's talk about U D C, Le Front National, Women rights, Gays, Lesbians, Pedophiles...

I don't often get involved in threads here, though I do sometimes read them. 

I don't want to believe you're equating lesbians to pedophiles, or women's rights to the UDC. So I'll assume you're asking us not to talk about... well, the pressing matters that concern the shapes and turns of  most of our lives?

Or why don't you just tell me, since writing all in caps that you don't want to talk about Nazis honestly has me a bit confused. 

It makes no difference whether you refer to masskillings as democides, politicides, "classicides", or genocides. And it makes no difference whether you implement mass killings by forced hardship migrations and deportations, manmade famins, or straightout executions. The highest death tolls that have been documented in communist states occurred in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, in the in the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong, in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and in Ethiopia under Mengisto. The estimates of the number of civilians killed by these four regimes alone range from a low of 22 million to a high of 70 million.

As you missed it, it's normal you can't understand...

The women rights etc... WERE ONLY EXAMPLES OF TOPICS TO DISCUSS,

i'm not mixing anything, Ariel .

By posting such threads you're only promoting Néo-Nazi. And besides i agree with Medicis there's more important things to talk about !

I don't agree. By posting such threads, Translator is showing how there ARE Neo-Nazis today, here in Switzerland. 

What would you rather us do? Hide under the blankets and just post the light, fluffy topics about break up songs that these forums are famous for? 

(Not that theres anything wrong with those threads ;) )

But we're adults, and some of us are in this field, and why shouldn't we speak of adult matters when the time is necessary?

''By posting such threads you're only promoting Néo-Nazi''

what utter nonsense that is! we live in a democracy and it's our duty to be vigiliant and call out evil when we see it. i'm always disappointed when i see how terrified people on this site are to talk about the real world, as if facts are somehow offensive to them?

that goes for you too medicis.

Yes we are all adults and yes we know that there are still néo nazis in our days ! all i'm saying is that it's a delicate subject like politics everyone has their own opinion and will expresse it ! so the result of these kind of threads is conflicts !

Wherein lies the promotion? I think, you are promoting it. "Ohmygodhowtellme?", you say? - You are advocating self-censorship. Part of the problem, Mr. Prentice. Not the solution. Now, the weather, as requested.

'..Today will be between zero and ten degrees in the Geneva area. Small chance of showers. So, gentlemen, don't forget an umbrella for your lovely wives. Next up. Lotto numbers..  34.. 76.. 14.. 02.. 11. Thank you for listening to the GLO newscast.' 

.. and here's the article from 20minutes instead of the half-a^Z^Z^Z^Z^Z^Zshort WRS "summary". 

I think, you have a lot to talk about in this thread ;)  I'll just watch.

Once again... How it turn when we're talking about religion, politics...

as you wrote we leave in a democracy it's my right if i want to see this kind of topic...

Neo-Nazism is a  delicate subject? Really?

At the risk of uncovering some massive, writhing pile of Nazi sympthasizers on here - of whose existence you're implying with such a comment - I'd like to see a virtual show of hands on this question:

Neo-Nazis: OK or not? (I can not believe I am asking a forum of adult expats this question) Apparently there is such a wide range of views on Neo-Nazis that the only forseeable outcome of such a discussion is conflict.

This is a  democracy, and a democracy is meant to be composed of educated people coming together to discuss the pressing issues of the day. If you can't handle an ugly side of the country, which is pretty hard to ignore, with all these UDC posters of black sheep all over the city, then its best you stick to lighter threads. 

Why are you saying i can't handdle it ! that is what we are doing, discussing about this !

@ Ariel i will not come down to your level therefor i'm leaving this thread 

Might I suggest then you, just for a moment, realize how much of a, at best, coward, at worst, a Nazi sympathizer, you appear when you say we shouldn't discuss these matters, and that you can't handle it. 

Not trying to appear like a cold hearted bastard, but its not really your comfort that matters when Neo-Nazism and their promotion is on the table. 

I'm referring to this post of yours: "By posting such threads you're only promoting Néo-Nazi. And besides i agree with Medicis there's more important things to talk about !"

- and yes, sorry about the tone. No actual offensee meant. It was meant as satire. Well, your post indicated clearly that we should *not* discuss neonazism or anything sensitive for fear that it might fan the flames - and that just hides the problem and de-educates people.

Don't worry. It's a bit like: "Don't think of the green elephant! No green elephants! Forget about green elephants!".

What are you saying ? that i'm a some kind of crazy bastard who believes in nazi ideology ? i didn't talk about my confort or anything ! what you are doing is "defamation" !

No need to correct you there, Charlie, if we are talking about present day, not the days of Stalin.

At the moment in Russia and other former Soviet Union nations, right-wing extremism is on the rise.

In addition, this article refers to an individual and not a government.

Charlie makes an excellent point - Communist regimes have committed genocide with higher numbers of victims than Fascist regimes. 

But Translator also makes a good point, right wing extremism is on the rise again. Translator, how much influence do you think such individuals, from the lowly Asst. Prof Neo-Nazi to Murdoch, have on the movements of government today?

Yes and they all should be condemned. But your conflating the issue of a neo-Nazi on the faculty of a major university of this country and the human rights failures and abuses of totalitarian regimes is beside the point.

So of course you skip over the major point of the article and claim that both left-wing and right-wing extremism around the world and throughout history are equally repugnant.  Yeah, it's bad everywhere and everyone's at fault so let's stop pointing fingers. Right.

That is just a manner of attempting to diminish the outrage of the situation.

Second, you make it seem as if Rupert Murdoch is some small time player on the world media scene. He owns major media companies in print and broadcast  in Europe, the United States and Asia.  Hundreds of millions of people around the world are listening to his and his managers' points of view.

Again, the point here is the role of an individual on a faculty and not totalitarian or authoritarian governments around the world.

But hey, if it's all the same to you, fine.

What I would like to know is who knew what when.  How was it  that this whole story came to light?

What kind of background check are done on professors and other teaching assistants?

I would like here to stick to the topic and not to conflate this incident with all other neo-nazi incidents or nazi incidents in the past.

Will any one be made to take responsibility for this or will the story simply fade away?

In this case, as well as others, it is vital to stick to the topic. Instead of answering Haegar as sarcastically as I did, I should have pointed out that his comment really had little to do with the topic. 

Medicis, I can understand your point of view, however, I believe that there are grave issues of responsibility here that should be addressed.

I am happy to contribute to dating, music, film clip theads, where-to-find-it and so on, but this is also a real issue that was in the news in the country in which we live.

For those interested, here are two references on Switzerland and right-wing extremism.  I leave it to those concerned with left-wing extremism in this country to add their sources to the debate.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Rightwing_extremism_on_the_rise.html?cid=7239206

http://www.humanrights.ch/home/en/Switzerland/Internal-Affairs/Racism/Studies/idcatart_8337-content.html

 It is important to note that the "black sheep" and "minaret-as-missiles" campaign posters have been replicated by other right-wing movements, particularly in Germany.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,736428,00.html

No Translator you can't understand my point of view ! just 1 question :

Does one of your relatives killed by nazis ?!

Why is that material to the point of view?  My father and 3 of his brothers had to fight them.  It was probably simply luck that he was not killed as he was in a trucking division. He ended up in Nurenberg at the end of the war and had to deal with former SS on a daily basis.

I regret if you have had a relative killed by a Nazi. If so, I truly cannot understand your pain on a personal level.  I can and do believe that it is important not to let facism or any other kind of human rights abuses occur if I can do anything about it.  And that's  what I've done in my govenrment work.

Sorry, government

One of my younger brothers, however, was killed in Florida over 20 years ago. And there was no justice for him. That may be one reason I believe it important to address these kinds of issues.

Wow, so let's bury our head in the sand and maybe the problem will disappear. I am reminded of the First they came… statement.

Skinheads, neo-nazis, Aryan nation, KKK are alive and strong, not only here in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, but also the UK and USA. In the USA alone there are over 1000 active hate groups. Talking about the problem is not promoting the problem, rather it is bringing light to the subject and reminding us all that such groups exist. Knowledge is power.

I don't know the details about the ETH situation, but I can assure you that it's not an isolated problem. I had a professor in college who was a Hitler historian and it was quite clear to all of us that he was sympathetic to Hitler and the Nazi movement. Yet somehow he was a tenured professor in a state run university. 

Remember the line from Usual Suspects (originally attributed to Baudelaire): "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." The groups are out there, just like the Taliban, Tamil Tigers and many many others.

Some of these people are extremely clever and intelligent and they know how to keep their backgrounds clean. I really don't know that teaching institutions are required to do background checks, you apply for a job, turn over your CV, they check with former employers, the normal routine. The ETH can't exactly turn to the police and request a full background check on every TA, so I am not exactly sure that they have liability. Even if they did know his background (which is unlikely), they can't exactly discriminate against him for his beliefs or ideologies, at least I assume not, as you can't in the USA either. The point is that they did something about it when it was brought to light.

Why do you need to have family members killed in order to care about this issue?

And bpmccartney, double points for the Usual Suspects quote. Nice!

Was a crime committed?

Seriously? the Nazis were obeying the law when the rounded up the Jews.

I honestly don't know Swiss law well enough, I am a photographer, not a legal expert or a doctor, but I know enough that if you don't treat a wound it will get infected. Just like if you let ignorance and hate fester long enough, it will become a serious problem, at least that's what they taught me in my history classes.

OK, I was not clear. I meant: "Was a crime committed by the person in question?"

It says in the article he had been convicted. Which is why I find it very strange he was given this position. Surely in the nation where I can be up for deportation for not having my bus ticket (did that referendum pass, by the way?) this guy couldn't be allowed to educate the minds of younger generations?

Surely?

As lovely as the Geneva expats have been in my time here, I have been disgusted by the racism that runs rampant through the politics here. The Swiss politicians of the right have apparently forgot which side won the last World War. 

Yes, thats what I was answering - the article described him as convicted. I would assume that means he was found guilty of a crime... either that or Google translate is playing nasty tricks on me :)

The conviction was for graffiti seven years prior to his job as TA. Any other crimes, meanwhile?

This isn't some teenage "the cops are bastards" graffitti. This is calling for people to be killed in labor camps. 

I wouldn't want someone like that teaching me, my kids, or anyone. Unless an explicit part of his teaching philosophy is: 'Hey, I made a major few mistakes growing up, and I admit them. They were wrong, and this is why.'

But it seems this was some goddamn deep dark secret that some journo students dug up. So, it doesn't matter how many years have passed now. 

Bus ticket: Anyone more acquainted, please correct, if necessary:

As legal resident, you cannot be deported - not just like that. As non-resident visitor, or illegal resident, yes, unless you can present an Schengen-approved passport and 300 EUR in cash for your immediate sustenance and maybe a return ticket. At least, that's how (I believe) it is in the EU/Schengen currently.

Maybe so, but the article is scant on details regarding his teaching philosophy, if a teaching assistant has one. The only tidbits of information, we are given is: Noone noted anything unusual and his thesis didn't progress sufficiently.

(the graffiti, at age 18, was explicitly about labor camps for drug dealers, but the swastika-grafitti does not help his case very much, either).

Anyhow.. I'm done :D

Inspired to do something else, I will go read "The Last Ringbearer" ;) (trolls)

I'd rather think of skiing in the sun than of this guy.

I know it was for drug dealers. Does that make it any less offensive?

Anyway, do the book! And thanks for letting me know more about the particulars of the referendum.

I myself, am going to have some wine and watch a gay interpretation of wildlife that has my boyfriend currently choking from laughter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf1IcdAvbPA

ahem. Thats 'do enjoy' the book. 

Damn you, non-editing feature!

Thanks and now I know more about flamingos, than I ever thought, I would know. They look very tasty. Enjoy the wine.

I'm peruvian and I don't like any kind of discrimination (it's proubed that there are not races, that all of us, we are "homo sapiens") World is great today, not perfect, but we can improve it!!! thanks to participation of the talent of many people, wihout regarding his origins, sex, colours, economy, etc. We have to make of the planet a better place!!! seriously love each other, take care of the others and of our plannet because we don't have other home yet. I know the other way very well! I come from a violent country and believe me, if we start to spread violence, everybody will be hurted!!! so let's enjoy the time here down and lets spread good vibes ;)