Wiesenthal Centre Joins UNESCO and French Memorial to the Shoah in Response to Ahmadinejad's Genocidal Message that "The Holocaust Is a Lie, Let Us Make It a Reality!"

January 20, 2009

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE
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Wiesenthal Centre Joins UNESCO and French Memorial to the Shoah in Response to Ahmadinejad's Genocidal Message that "The Holocaust Is a Lie, Let Us Make It a Reality!"

Paris, 20 January 2009

In a letter to UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, and to the President of the French Memorial to the Shoah, Baron Eric de Rothschild, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, confirmed that, "while UNESCO and the Memorial will be marking the International Holocaust Commemoration Day 2009 in Paris, our Centre – together with Verbe et Lumière-Vigilance and the Russian Holocaust Centre – will be holding a parallel session, under the auspices of UNESCO, on 27 February 2009 in Moscow."

Samuels noted that "the Centre's membership is outraged that, simultaneously, a ceremony is to be held in Tehran to launch English and Arabic versions of a book of caricatures, based on the 2006 Iranian international competition of cartoons denying, satirizing and profaning the Holocaust. This hatefest is to be attended by government officials and regaled with a message on 'The Holocaust Fiction' by Iranian President Ahmadinejad – a violator of Article II(4) of the United Nations Charter and Articles III and IV of the Genocide Convention in his 'direct and public incitement for the annihilation of a Member State'."

The Centre expressed pride to be associated with UNESCO's and the Memorial's commemoration in Paris, "through our launch, in Moscow, of the Russian edition of 'Antisemitism – The Generic Hatred. Essays in Memory of Simon Wiesenthal', co-sponsored by UNESCO."

The letter continued, "Ahmadinejad's Holocaust desecration, pursuit of nuclear weapons and threat 'to wipe Israel off the map', is a clear genocidal message to the world: 'The Holocaust Is a Lie, Let Us Make It a Reality!'"

"The UNESCO-sponsored Holocaust commemorations in Paris and Moscow are an appropriate response to Tehran and such voices of hate," concluded Samuels.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58.