Ralph Giordano is a German writer and publicist.

Giordano was born to a Sicilian father and a Jewish mother.

Due to his Jewish heritage, he was soon persecuted by the Nazis during the Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 regime. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, his family survived the Holocaust by hiding at a friend's place. After his experiences, Giordano became a communist, but soon grew estranged because of his dislike for Stalinism

Stalinism

Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

 and exited the German Communist Party

German Communist Party

The German Communist Party is a Marxist-Leninist party in Germany.-History:The DKP was formed in West Germany in 1968, in order to fill the place of the Communist Party of Germany , which had been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956...

 in 1957.

In 1964, Giordano joined the WDR as a journalist and stayed there until 1988.

Currently, Giordano is a freelance writer and has written numerous articles about his experiences in Nazi Germany, the dangers of Neo-Nazi movements, and sees Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 as a threat: in a New York Times interview (2007), he vehemently opposed the construction of a new mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

 in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, citing German mosques as "a symbol of a parallel society", and calling the integration of German Muslims "a failure".

Private life

Giordano was married to his second wife Roswitha Everhan from 1994 until her death in 2002. He lives in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

. Giordano is a close friend of black German-American journalist Hans Massaquoi

Hans Massaquoi

Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi is a German American journalist and author. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a German mother and Liberian Vai father, the grandson of Momulu Massaquoi the consul general of Liberia in Germany at the time....

.

External links

• Biography at whoiswho.de (German)