European Office

The European office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Paris, France, actively promotes and supports the Center's mission in Europe by combating antisemitism, Holocaust denial, extremism, and neo-Nazi activity. The European office brings these issues to the attention of government leaders, members of the media and communities throughout Europe.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center Europe

• Monitors and combats the growth of neo-Nazi activity in Europe by alerting government leaders, the media, and local communities to these incidents. These actions have led to the ban of neo-Nazi rallies in Spain, the cancellation of revisionist conferences in France, the closure of Swedish neo-Nazi bank accounts and distribution centers in Spain, and the exposure of neo-Nazi paramilitary training camps and arms supplies in Portugal, among others.
• Takes an active role in seeking out and exposing boycotts of Israel and purposeful omissions of Israel in publications, guides, catalogues, and maps. Corporations that have been exposed are L'Oreal, KPMG Accounting, the Michelin Map, a shipping company in France, and a chemicals company in Britain.
• Organizes and participates in conferences throughout Europe on themes such xenophobia and antisemitism in Russia, fascism, Holocaust denial, Jewish-Moslem relations, and the search for Nazi gold and looted art. Some conference co-sponsors have included UNESCO, the German government, Oxford University and the Carnegie Foundation.
• Keeps a watch over the many concentration camps throughout Europe ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust and the sanctity of these sites are preserved. In recent years this has included protesting to Polish government officials over both a convent and disco in Auschwitz, forcing the removal of an exhibition panel on "Israel Nazism" from the Memorial Museum of Terezin, placing a memorial plaque mentioning Jewish victims who perished at the Natzweiler-Struthof, and pressuring Philip Morris to cancel plans for a cigarette factory planned for Auschwitz.
• Has observed and attended the various trials of Nazi war criminals in Europe including Paul Touvier in France and Erich Priepke in Italy.
• Distributes educational materials to schools, universities, conferences, and was the recipient of the European Parliamentary Medal for organizing the European Union and UNESCO competition, "Fifty Years after the Holocaust: Lessons for Europe."
• Monitors antisemitism and Holocaust denial in books, newspapers, and other publications. After Wiesenthal Center's protests, Japanese antisemitic books were withdrawn from a shop in Paris, meetings were held with the Red Cross to condemn the Palestinian Red Crescent's article denying the Holocaust, the German Red Cross Blood Transfusion President resigned after the publication of a Holocaust denial newsletter, and the Bulgarian authorities withdrew an antisemitic text, Masons, Jews and Revolutions: How these Forces of Satan are Preparing the End of Mankind.
• Regularly addresses different organizations on issues of concern to the Wiesenthal Center such as "Antisemitism in the Arab Media" at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy in Amman, "Hate Online" at the Israeli Knesset, and "Religious Intolerance in Europe Today" at the U.S. Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.