A leading French author was revealed last week to have published antisemitic drawings and manifestos in a student magazine that promoted Holocaust revisionism.

Yann Moix wrote passages in the publication that claimed concentration camps never existed and he published cartoons depicting Jewish prisoners as pigs.

The magazine — whose title Ushoahia is a portmanteau of a popular television programme and the word Shoah — was published in 1989 and 1990 and unearthed last week by the news magazine L’Express.

In the 30 years since the magazine was printed Mr Moix has become one of France’s most recognised authors. His latest novel Orléans was praised by critics as one of the finest French-language works of this year.

In Ushoahia, Mr Moix and his associates referred to prominent Jews like the writer Bernard Henri-Levy as “Zionist sodomites” with “long noses”.

L’Express revealed one of his stories included the phrase “Everyone knows concentration camps never existed” and referred to Jews trying to get a refund on their train ticket to Buchenwald.

Another mocks Holocaust victims by mimicking a Coca-Cola commercial with the slogan: “Coca Crema: you can beat the Jew.”

One cartoon in the magazine showed a camp prisoner playing electric guitar in front of a crematorium and a pile of corpses, while another depicted pigs wearing the striped Auschwitz uniform.

“It’s liberating in a way to see these documents revealed. They were like a Sword of Damocles hanging over me for 30 years,” Mr Moix told the Liberation daily on Wednesday.

“I admit everything. I wrote, drew and produced shit. My texts and drawings are antisemitic but I am not an antisemite.

“The man I am today is ashamed of what I’ve done. Everything I have done since, all my life since then has been an attempt to break away from that toxic trap.”

The news came as a surprise to France’s Jewish community because Mr Moix has been known for speaking out against antisemitism for years.

He would frequently quote Jewish intellectuals like the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas on a television show he used to co-host on Saturday nights, and Jewish community group Crif invited him several times to offer his analysis of modern antisemitism.

“I’d rather meet with him first and ask him to explain himself,” Francis Kalifat, leader of the French Jewish organisation Crif, told the JC when asked to comment.

“Was this some kind of militant political antisemitic action? If it were, he would still be antisemitic today but Mr Moix has shown empathy for years.

“Was this a young man’s foolish provocation?”

Historian Marc Knobel said the author was not the first French figure to start out as an extremist and gradually change.

“A number of politicians have started out as activists in far-right group GUD and gradually changed. Others were Maoists or Stalinists.”

“What’s obvious is that those writings are truly nauseating and violent. Moix has voiced regret but that does not excuse everything,” Mr Knobel said.

“What’s also disturbing is the massive coverage this case is getting in the press. A disturbing family fued making headlines like the latest controversial saga the press loves so much all while promoting Moix’s book.”

His writings resurfaced amid controversy surrounding the publication of Orléans, in which Mr Moix accuses his parents of beating him as a child. Media coverage of the book turned into chaos after his parents and brother denied the accusations and accused Mr Moix of striking his own brother.

Mr Moix said his family released the antisemitic writings to hurt him.