WIESENTHAL CENTER HAILS REFORMIST IRANIAN POLITICIANS FOR CRITICIZING IRANIAN HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE

Center posts its “36 Questions About the Holocaust” in Persian

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today applauded  reformists in the Iranian Parliament for condemning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration for the convening of a controversial Holocaust conference that included historical revisionists and deniers. The reformers, who represent a 42-member faction, blamed the current Administration for Iran’s deepening diplomatic isolation. “The only way to pass this crisis is to build confidence….but holding a Holocaust conference and financing the Hamas government creates mistrust and tension,” said Noureddin Pirmoazzen, spokesman for the Reformist faction.

“Holocaust survivors and decent people everywhere should take heart from the remarkable statement, which proves that many Iranians aren’t embracing Ahmadinejad’s campaign of hate,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “This protest is especially meaningful as it comes on the heels of Iranian TV’s broadcast of another Holocaust denial conference that took place in Cairo on December 27,” Cooper added.

“Now we must arm the Iranian people with the truth,” said Cooper.  We should make every effort to educate young Iranians about the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust, history’s most documented atrocity,” he concluded.

In this connection, the Wiesenthal Center  is posting a Persian translation of its “36 Questions About the Holocaust” online at:  www.wiesenthal.com/36questionsinfarsi . The Center will also release a 2-DVD set of its three-city videoconference of Holocaust survivors, held last month in response to the Tehran conference. Last year, the Center broadcast into Iran via satellite segments translated into Farsi of its Academy Award™ winning documentary, Genocide.