16.01.2007

Iran’s 2006 Holocaust Denial Conference: A Gathering of Nazi Sympathizers & Racists

Nazi sympathizers and racists from around the world gathered in Iran this December to deny the Holocaust at a conference hosted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. [1] About six million Jews and other minorities including Gypsies, handicapped people and homosexuals were systematically murdered by the Nazi's in the Holocaust during World War II.

President Ahmadinejad himself has publicly described the Holocaust as a "myth" and earlier this year initiated an exhibition of cartoons mocking the Holocaust. [2]

Ahmadinejad personally invited 67 of the world's most notorious racists to speak at the conference and promoted them as "researchers." The line up of "experts" included David Duke, the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan; Fredrick Toeben who was jailed in Germany for inciting racial hatred and insulting the memory of the dead; Robert Faurisson a French lecturer stripped of his academic tenure for claiming Nazi death camps didn't exist; and Nazi sympathizer Michele Renouf who was recently banned from addressing the far-Right British National Party because they considered her racist views too extreme. [3]

Also in attendance were representatives from a tiny ostracized Jewish sect called Neturai Karta who vehemently oppose the State of Israel based on their belief that "Jews should suffer in exile until redeemed by the Messiah." The radical sect used the seminar as a publicity stunt to get attention and promote their ideology. [4]

Many European countries including Germany, Austria and France have laws that make Holocaust denial a crime on the grounds it distorts history and spreads racial hatred. Ahmadinejad cited those laws to bill the seminar as an exercise in free speech but he barred credible historians and academics from attending. While using the free speech card to legitimize his hate conference, Ahmadinejad continued to shut down Iranian newspapers [5] and Internet sites that criticized him [6] , banned Western music [7], books [8] and films [9] and jailed students suspected of having views contrary to the regime. [10]

Among those who Ahmadinejad banned from the seminar was Khaled Kasab Mahameed, a Palestinian who established the Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education, the only Holocaust museum in the Arab world. [11]

Xenophobic propaganda was exhibited at the conference in an attempt to contradict and belittle the fact that millions of Jews and other "undesirables" were exterminated in death camps during the Holocaust. One poster showed the dead bodies of Holocaust victims accompanied by a caption describing accounts of their gassing as a "myth." Another poster showed smiling prisoners liberated from death camps at the end of the war with the label "truth." There were plenty of books written by holocaust deniers on display but none written by conventional historians or credible academics. Photos of Holocaust victims in death camps were accompanied by captions claiming they were killed by disease and not by the Nazis. [12]

The two-day Holocaust denial conference was widely condemned by international leaders: [13]

German chancellor Angela Merkal: "We reject in the strongest terms conferences held in Iran on the supposed non-existence of the Holocaust. Germany will never accept this and will use all possibilities at its disposal to oppose it." [14]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "I think it is such a symbol of sectarianism and hatred towards people of another religion, I find it just unbelievable. I found that this conference that they had questioning the Holocaust is shocking beyond belief."

"To go and invite the former head of the Ku Klux Klan to a conference in Tehran which disputes the millions of people who died in the Holocaust ... what further evidence do you need that this regime is extreme?" [15]

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy: "We are witnessing the re-emergence of revisionist ideas that are quite simply unacceptable." [16]

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said: "Russia shares the determination of the UN not to allow the negation of the Holocaust. That defines our position concerning the event in Tehran.Moscow is against the revision of historic events, like when the truth of the odious crimes of the Nazis is hidden, like when the results of the bold struggle of humanity against Nazism are rewritten." [17]

The Vatican: "The Shoah (Holocaust) was an appalling tragedy which one cannot remain indifferent to. The last century was witness to a bid to exterminate the Jewish people, the consequence being the murder of millions of Jews of all ages and social classes, simply for belonging to this people. The memory of these terrible events must remain as a warning to consciences in order to eliminate conflicts, to respect the legitimate rights of all people, to plead for peace with truth and with justice." [18]

The European Union: "The EU condemns any denial of the Holocaust as a historical fact, either in whole or in part, and therefore firmly rejects the underlying premise and the objectives of the conference." [19]

In addition, about 40 renowned research institutes from Germany to Sweden to Australia have severed contact with Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies, the Iranian think tank that helped organize the conference. [20]

 

References

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{1} "Outrage over Holocaust conference" BBC, December 12, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6172807.stm

{2} Tait, Robert, "Iran cartoon show mocks Holocaust," The Guardian, August 20, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1854223,00.html

{3} Harrison, Frances, "Where Holocaust denial is welcomed," BBC, December 16, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6183061.stm

Freeman, Colin, "Anti-Semites head for Iran to query Holocaust," The Telegraph,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/10/wiran10.xml

{4} "Why are Jews at the "Holocaust denial" conference?," BBC, December 13, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6171503.stm

{5} Day, julia, "Iran closes daily paper," The Guardian, September 12, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1870587,00.html

{6} Tait, Robert, "Iran bans fast Internet to cut West's influence," The Guardian, October 16, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1924636,00.html

{7} "Iran president bans Western music," BBC, December 19, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4543720.stm

{8} Tait, Robert, "Bestsellers banned in new Iranian censorship purge," The Guardian,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1950279,00.html

{9} "Iran bans foreign films," The Guardian, Octoober 26, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1600884,00.html?gusrc=rss

{10} "Intelligence Ministry behind campaign to punish political beliefs, activism" Human Rights Watch, October 19, 2006
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/19/iran14406.htm

{11} Theodoulou, Michael, "Holocaust deniers ban dissenting voice," The Times of London, December 11, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2497895,00.html

{12} Tait, Robert. "Holocaust deniers gather in Iran for 'scientific' conference," The Guardian, December 12, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1970043,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

{13} "In quotes: Iran's Holocaust conference," BBC, December 12, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6172889.stm

{14} Germany's Merkel condemns Iranian Holocaust conference," International Herald Tribune, December 12, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/12/europe/EU_GEN_Germany_Iran_Holocaust_Conference.php

{15} Brown, Colin and Penketh Anne, "Defiant Ahmadinejad revels at Holocaust event," The Independent, December 13, 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2070190.ece

{16} Kole, William,"Holocaust deniers' meeting spurs outrage," AP, December 12, 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/holocaust_denial

{17} "Iran Holocaust row rages on," AFP, December 13, 2006
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/13122006/323/iran-holocaust-row-rages.html--

{18} Barr, Robert, "Blair Shocked by Holocaust Denial Meeting," The Guardian, December 12, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6275494,00.html

{19} "Iran destabilises Mideast - EU," The Scotsman, December 15, 2006
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1864832006

{20} "40 institutes boycott Iranian think tank that organized Holocaust conference, Paris-based researcher says," International Herald Tribune, December 16, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/16/europe/EU_GEN_France_Holocaust_Conference_Boycott.php