Holocaust Survivors In Three Cities Across North America Join Together To Confront Iran's Conference Of Holocaust Deniers And Revisionists

December 7, 2006

 

HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN THREE CITIES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA JOIN TOGETHER TO CONFRONT IRAN’S CONFERENCE OF HOLOCAUST DENIERS AND REVISIONISTS

In a collective display of defiance against Iran’s “Holocaust” conference, over 60 Holocaust survivors in the U.S. and Canada today gave accounts of what they had to live through and what they saw under the Nazi regime. Iran’s conference, which included such Holocaust deniers and revisionists as David Duke and Robert Faurisson, comes a year after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the Holocaust was a ‘myth.’  To counter this, the Simon Wiesenthal Center gathered together survivors who were linked by videoconferencing between the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and Tolerancenter in New York and Center offices in Toronto. In addition, the Center received pages of testimony via fax and e-mail.

“It wasn’t enough that their loved ones were murdered in the death camps, now they have to prove to Ahmadinejad they are not liars,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “As one of today’s survivors put it, ‘If the Holocaust was a myth, where is my sister?’” Hier added.

The Wiesenthal Center has plans to archive all of today’s testimonies and then make them available on DVDs to be distributed to schools in the U.S. and the world over.

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ACT NOW AGAINST IRAN'S HOLOCAUST DENIAL CONFERENCE

The Iranian regime has gathered 70 Holocaust revisionists from 30 countries to participate in a Holocaust denial conference in Tehran entitled, “The Holocaust: A World Prospect.” This development comes after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claims that the Holocaust was ‘a myth’ and the sponsoring of an international Holocaust cartoon contest in Tehran earlier this year.

Such lies cannot go unchallenged.

We therefore ask you to join the Wiesenthal Center’s petition to United Nations Secretary-General-designate Ban Ki-moon  urging him to step up the UN’s commitment to fight against the desecration of the memory of the Holocaust and to honor the words of Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he stated at a Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in January of 2006, “Holocaust denial is the work of bigots. We must reject their false claims whenever, wherever, and by whomever they are made."

Secretary General Annan has also stated, “The United Nations was founded as a reaction to the horrors of World War II.” But, this conference mocks the very founding principles of the United Nations and ridicules the General Assembly resolution designating January 27^th as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Simultaneous to the Tehran hate-fest, the Simon Wiesenthal Center convened ‘Witness To The Truth,’ a three-city videoconference in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto, bringing together Holocaust survivors whose first hand accounts of the horrors of the Nazis' Final Solution exposed and debunked the deniers.

The Iranian regime, which has threatened genocide against the Jewish State, is using Holocaust denial as Statecraft. Its ultimate goal is to demonize the Jewish people, her history, values and faith. We dare not be silent.

Please use this link to sign the petition now - these threats cannot be left unchallenged.  And after signing the petition, please use the forward-to-a-friend function to send this important message to your friends and family today.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS and the Council of Europe. For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.