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September 9,
2021 - Droog Magazine periodical for
investigative journalism to index-page Arthur Graaff files | main page Who and what is Arthur Graaff? | 'Fantasy proneness' The vanished Wikipedia lemma | Sources  Arthur
Graaff
shows a portrait photo of his alleged uncle.
Arthur Graaff (Hilversum, 1948) is a former journalist, who radicalised after his retirement and campaigns against alleged fascism, nazism and racism. The most striking thing about these actions is that he directs them mainly against people who are absolutely not fascists, nazis, neo-nazis or racists. Graaff's actions consist of blaming people and disrupting war memorials, Second World War events and military fairs. For some time he was also spokesman for the AFVN/BvA, a splinter group of notorious pro-Soviet/Russian communists.
To lend force to his words, Graaff invoked his family's history of resistance. His father, Bart Graaff (1917-2014), was indeed active in the resistance. On 20 January 1944, after almost two years in prison, Bart Graaff was sentenced by a German Feldgericht to 12 years in prison for 'helping the enemy', with deductions. For this he was awarded the Verzetsherdenkingskruis (Resistance Memorial Cross). There is no doubt about that.
But Arthur Graaff claims that his father also received the Yad Vashem decoration 'Righteous Among the Nations'. This award, after extensive research, is given to people who risked their lives during the war to help Jews. However, Bart Graaff does not appear in the Yad Vashem database. The only 'evidence' is this obituary:
Yad Vashem: "The title Righteous Among the Nations is awarded only to individuals, not to groups."
We can safely assume that Bart Graaff knew nothing about this 'extra' award. When asked, Arthur Graaff could not show any document that supports the Yad Vashem claim in this advertisement. "My uncle Christiaan"
Arthur Graaff also claims that "my uncle"
Christiaan Graaff was murdered in Dachau. Now, a Christiaan Graaff did indeed
perish in KZ Dachau, but he was certainly no uncle of
Arthur Graaff - he was a second cousin, a distant
relative of the 7th degree. In March 2020, a new fabrication was
added: he was to be the new National Rapporteur on
Nazism, Fascism and Racism for the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights. At the relevant UN High
Commissioner's Office, however, nothing about that was
known. The secretary of the AFVN reported on April 13, 2020 that Arthur Graaff had not been a spokesman for some time. But Graaff wrote a day later that he still is, concerning the Ysselsteyn file, i.e. the German War Cemetery near Venray where, according to Graaff, only Nazis are buried. to top of page.
Arthur Graaff is certainly not the only one who makes up stories about the wartime past of close relatives. A recent case in point is Isabel van Boetzelaer, who in her book Oorlogsouders (War Parents) (2017) depicted over her Nazi grandfather as a resistance fighter and condoned the behaviour of her father - who was a notorious Jew-hunter. It resembles the behaviour previously observed in the Barbro Karlén affair (a Swedish writer who believed she was the reincarnation of Anne Frank), the Friedrich Weinreb affair (the Dutchman who fabricated a Resistance past) and the Binjamin Wilkomirski/Bruno Grosjean affair (a Swiss man who published a world bestseller, fabricating his alleged camp experiences). In Skepter, Harald Merckelbach reported on these cases, as well as on the so-called bogus vets: "people who claim to have suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of their front-line experiences in Vietnam, but who were never there in reality. They are liars 'who have been telling their lies so long the stories become real to them'." Poet/sculptor and Holocaust survivor Chawwa Wijnberg (1942-2019) told me that she had experienced that at self-help groups for Holocaust survivors sometimes people signed up who were neither Jewish nor had experienced the war, yet presented themselves as such. ‘Fantasy proneness’
Merckelbach: "What binds [all these things] together is a trait known in psychological literature as 'fantasy proneness'. The term was coined by the American psychologists Wilson and Barber (1983) as a result of their in-depth interviews with people who had an irrepressible tendency to become completely absorbed in their daydreams and fantasies. Wilson and Barber found that these persons are virtuosos in role playing. They are the type of person who, during a bus ride, tells fellow passengers that they come from Alaska and, in the process, tells them about the life of the Eskimos in a compelling manner. At drama schools and film academies this talent is recommended, but as soon as fantasists have to give evidence, the complications are incalculable." to top of page. The vanished Arthur Graaff
Wikipedia-lemma.
The Arthur Graaff page has been the subject of a dispute on Wikipedia for seven years. The page has now been removed for the third time. The latest version of the page, preserved in the internet archives, shows that Wikipedia editors had noticed that someone was working on the page with a presumably fake account (a so-called 'sock puppet'), in order to pimp Graaff's life and to blacken supposed Nazi sympathisers and racists. One does not need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce who this 'sock puppet' was. to top of page. Bronnen
Arolsen Archives. International Center on Nazi
Persecution, Arolsen (D). Stukken
over Bart Graaff (inschrijving Oranjehotel,
volledig vonnis 20-01-1944, papieren uit
tuchthuizen Duitsland; Christiaan Graaff:
overlijdensakte, stamkaart Vught. Database
receivers 'Righteous among the Nations'-titel. Yad
Vashem, Jerzulam. [accessed 07-04-2020].
Bart FM Droog (compilation). De affaire Oorlogsouders. Droog Magazine, Eenrum, 17-09-2019. https://www.droog-mag.nl/2019/vl/oorlogsouders.pdfFeldgericht des Kommandierenden Generals und Befehlshabers im Luftgau Belgien/Nordfrankreich Bereich Holland. Feldurteil in der Strafsache gegen den Niederländer Bart Graaff geb. am 13.8.1917 wegen Feindbegünstigung, 20.1.44. Bestätigt von Fr. Christiansen, General der Flieger, 18.2.44. Collection Arthur Graaff. Rolando
Gomez, spokesperson of the UN High
Commissioner for the human Rights. E-mails
to Bart FM Droog, 07-04-2020 en
14-04-2020.
Nationaal
Comité
Verzetsherdenkingskruis. Gedenkboek
verzetsherdenkingskruis. Waarin opgenomen
register dragers verzetsherdenkingskruis.
Samson, Alphen aan de Rijn, 1985. Blz.
116.
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