Born in 1915 in Lausanne, Genoud was sent by his father to Germany at the age of 16 to learn discipline.

There, the avid pupil found a hero in Hitler. They met in a hotel in Bad Godesberg near Bonn and exchanged a few words. The future Führer confided in the adolescent, explaining his need for people of Genoud’s kind to create a fraternal Europe.

During the war, Genoud worked for the Abwehr, a German counter-espionage service. At the time of the German defeat, he was an active element of the ODESSA organization, organizing the escape of high-ranking Nazi leaders to South America, Italy and Spain and coordinating the transfer of their ‘war treasure’ to Swiss bank accounts.

Numerous contacts made during the war enabled him to acquire the rights to many of Hitler’s works, including his ‘political testament’. Genoud also acquired the entirety of Goebbels’ works. Revenue made on his publishing activities went to support Nazi prisoners and their families. Genoud’s ascent would not have been possible without the help of his loyal friend Rechenberg, one of Goering’s former lieutenants. Together they created an import-export company, Arabo-Afrika, a cover for financing various nationalist movements, including the FLN.

From 1935 to 1936, Genoud took a long car tour to the Middle East. There he met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who became his mentor, transforming him into a fervent militant of the Arabic-Palestinian cause.

Genoud became the legal representative for the Grand Mufti’s financial interests in Germany and defended him in a trial where he stood in opposition to Goering’s heirs. Even after the Grand Mufti died in 1974, Genoud remained his loyal defender, continuing to represent him for the next twenty years.

Meanwhile, at the end of the 1950s, Genoud created Swiss bank accounts in the name of numerous nationalist Arab movements. He first met Vergès in Geneva in 1961 after the French government suspended his law license.

After the victory of Independent Algeria, Genoud, being very close to Khider, founded a Swiss bank with him, to manage the infamous ‘FLN treasure’. The bank’s capital was majority-owned by Khider. Claims have been made that a tiny part of these funds was used to finance the journal “Revolution”, founded by Vergès in 1963 (see the testimony of Nils Anderson, a founding member of the publication).

Genoud reunited with Vergès in 1969, financing and advising on the defense of the PFLP members who had hijacked the El Al airplane in Zurich. He became Waddi Haddad’s strategic advisor, and was nicknamed “Sheik François” by Haddad who enrolled his Algerian friends, notably Mohammed Boudia and Bachir Boumaza to join him. Genoud admits to having delivered the ransom demand to the headquarters of the airline company on behalf of Waddi Haddad during the hijacking of a Lufthansa Boeing 747 in Yemen. The five million dollars collected were awarded to the PFLP.

Besides these accounts, it is difficult to identify the terrorist acts in which Genoud participated. When Klaus Barbie was arrested, Genoud called Vergès and financed the defense, according to Genoud’s own testimony, information that was corroborated by several witnesses who related specific details regarding the circumstances of this request (namely the collaborator Oussedik and Maitre Brahimi). Meanwhile, Vergès maintains that it was Barbie’s daughter who asked him to defend her father.

In 1995, his health deteriorating, Genoud called his family and close friends to his side to commit suicide in their company. Despite his fanatical Nazi principles, his anti-Zionism, his Negationism and his anti-Judaism, Genoud always denied being an anti-semite


Additional information:
— Extracted the book (pdf) : « Dans l'ombre du Chacal » (Im Schatten des Schakals), Oliver Schröm.