The South African Israel Public Affairs Committee (SAIPAC) is calling for Stephen Goodson, director of the South African Reserve Bank, to be fired following reports of his pro-Nazi views and statements calling the Holocaust a “huge lie”.

Goodson, who was elected as a non-executive director in 2003, expressed his beliefs last year in a radio interview with talk show host Deanna Spingola. He denied the Holocaust, calling it a “huge lie” that was created to extract large amounts of compensation from Germany.

He also spoke about his admiration for Hitler’s economic policies, saying the German ruler transformed the country and reduced the unemployment rate from 30 percent to zero in six years, The Independent Online reported.

In addition, Goodson wrote a book in 2004 entitled “Bonaparte Hitler Versus the International Bankers,” where he writes that Germany’s economic success, not “human rights issues,’’ provoked World War II.

Goodson, whose writings appear on several Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic websites, has also criticized the influence of Jewish bankers on British politics and on the pre-war German regime.

David Hersch of SAIPAC said it was “not good enough” for the Reserve Bank to say Goodson’s term would end in July and that he would not be reappointed.

“Goodson should be fired immediately or made to resign immediately. The Reserve Bank should be ashamed to have someone like this on their board of directors and now that he has been exposed, they should act immediately,” Hersch said. “It is also noted that Gill Marcus, the current governor of the Reserve Bank, is Jewish,” he added. 

Hersch also questioned when the Reserve Bank first discovered Goodson’s views, and added that by not firing him, it had condoned his behavior.

He also called on the government to make a clear “unequivocal statement condemning Goodson and distancing themselves from him and his statements, opinions, his denial of the Holocaust and adherence to anti-Semitic hate speech and complete falsehood.”

“If the South African government does not act immediately on this development, then it too is complicit,” Hersch asserted.

David Jacobson, executive director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, said they were “deeply shocked” over the “grossly anti-Semitic and racially inflammatory views” propagated by Goodson.

In a statement, Jacobson said they welcomed that the Reserve Bank has distanced itself from the “noxious” views expressed by Goodson.