[Dialogue] Leaders Voice Outrage on Iran's Holocaust Talks

[Harry Wainwright]

 <http://www.nytimes.com/>  <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/> 

 




  _____  

December 12, 2006

Leaders Voice Outrage on Iran’s Holocaust Talks 

By CHRISTINE HAUSER
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/christine_haus
er/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

A gathering in Iran billed as a conference to “debate” the Nazi annihilation
of six million Jews continued on its second day to spark outrage in the
West, drawing fierce criticism today from European leaders, the Vatican
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_c
atholic_church/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  and the White House. 

Calling the Holocaust an “immense tragedy” for all humanity, the Vatican
issued a statement admitting of no doubt that the mass murder took place,
and said it must serve as a warning for people to respect the rights of
others. The statement used the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, Shoah, and
expressed “great compassion” for what happened to the Jews during World War
II, according to Agence France-Presse. 

“The last century saw an attempt to exterminate the Jewish people, which led
to the killing of millions of Jews of all social categories merely because
of the fact that they belonged to that people,” the Vatican statement said.

The White House said in a statement today that the gathering of Holocaust
deniers in Tehran is an “affront to the entire civilized world, as well as
to the traditional Iranian values of tolerance and mutual respect.” 

“While people around the world mark International Human Rights Week and
renew the solemn pledges of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which
was drafted in the wake of the atrocities of World War II, the Iranian
regime perversely seeks to call the historical fact of those atrocities into
question and provide a platform for hatred,” the statement said. 

The conference in Tehran, which began Monday, attracted Holocaust deniers,
discredited scholars and white supremacists from around the world, who made
presentations questioning whether Nazi Germany used gas chambers to
exterminate some six million Jews and millions of other “undesirables,” as
well as other aspects of the historical record of the Holocaust. 

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/mahmoud_ahmadi
nejad/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , has frequently claimed that the Holocaust
was a myth used to justify the occupation of Palestine, meaning the creation
of the state of Israel. Last summer, Iran held a contest for cartoons about
the Holocaust, in reaction to a controversy over cartoons published in
Denmark that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad. 

While many Western countries have recently urged that Iran and Syria be
included in negotiations to deal with conflicts in the region, including the
violence in Iraq, some have pointed to the conference as indicative of the
extremist nature of the current Iranian government.

The White House said that it recognizes that not everyone in Iran agrees
with the most extreme elements in the regime there, and that the United
States would stand with those who seek “to overcome oppression, injustice,
and tyranny.” 

During his monthly news conference today, the British prime minister, Tony
Blair
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/tony_blair/ind
ex.html?inline=nyt-per> , held out little hope of engaging Iran in
constructive action in the Middle East, and expressed revulsion at the
Holocaust conference, calling it “shocking beyond belief.”

“It’s not that I’m against the concept of reaching out to people,” Mr. Blair
was quoted by Reuters as saying, in a reference to efforts to include Iran
in peace efforts. “The trouble is, I look around the region at the moment,
and everything that Iran is doing is negative.”

“You only have to see what is happening in Iran in the past couple of days
to realize how important it is that all people of moderation in the Middle
East try to come together and sort out the problems,” he continued. 

“I mean, they hold this conference yesterday which — you know, maybe I feel
too strongly about these things — but I think it is such a symbol of
sectarianism and hatred toward people of another religion. I find it just
unbelievable, really.” 

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, condemned the conference today and
said Germany would never accept it.

In several European countries, denial of the Holocaust is a crime.

Franco Frattini, the vice president of the European Commission
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/europea
n_commission/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , the executive arm of the European
Union
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/europea
n_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , today expressed “shock” that the
conference was convened.

“In the face of this event, I want to state my firm condemnation of any
attempt to deny, trivialize or minimize the Shoah, war crimes and crimes
against humanity,” Mr. Frattini said in a statement.

“I clearly reject these views which, in utter disregard of historically
established facts, constitute an unacceptable affront not only to the
victims of that tragedy and their descendants, but also to the whole
democratic world,” he said.

He said that the European Commission was determined to use its powers to
fight “these repugnant phenomena.” He called for the commission’s proposed
Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia to be adopted as soon
as possible.

On Monday, Germany summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in Berlin to
express its anger over the conference. The French foreign minister, Philippe
Douste-Blazy, also condemned the gathering. 

The Iranian foreign ministry said that 67 people from 30 countries were
participating in the two days of meetings. On Monday, Rasoul Mousavi, head
of the Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies,
said it would provide an opportunity to discuss the Holocaust “away from
Western taboos and the restriction imposed on them in Europe.” 

Among those attending from the United States was the former Ku Klux Klan
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/ku_klux
_klan/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  leader David Duke, whose prepared remarks,
published by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, asserted that the gas chambers in
which millions perished did not actually exist. He said on Monday that the
depiction of Jews as the “overwhelming victims of the Holocaust gave the
moral high ground to the Allies as victors of the war, and allowed Jews to
establish a state on the occupied land of Palestine.”

Others attending were Robert Faurisson, an academic from France, who said in
his speech that the Holocaust was a myth.

Bendikt Frings, a psychologist from Germany, said on Monday that he had come
to the conference to thank Mr. Ahmadinejad for initiating discussion on the
subject. And Frederick Toben, from Australia, said Mr. Ahmadinejad had
opened an issue “which is morally and intellectually crippling the Western
society.” 

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran for this article.

 

Copyright <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>
2006 The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>  

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