Shoah Cartoon Withdrawn
An Australian cartoonist said that two of his old works dealing with the Holocaust were entered into an Iranian newspaper contest without his permission.
Michael Leunig, whose Holocaust cartoons were rejected for publication in Australia in 2002, said Tuesday that he had discovered they were submitted to Iran’s Hamshahri newspaper.
“This is a fraud and a hoax, emanating, we believe, from Australia,” Leunig said in a radio interview. He said that Hamshahri had withdrawn the submissions at his request. According to press reports, one of Leunig’s cartoons showed a poor man, marked with a Star of David, entering Auschwitz. The drawing displayed the concentration camp’s slogan, “Work Brings Freedom.” The second cartoon showed a similar scene, except that the man carried a rifle, the slogan read “War Brings Peace” and the caption read “Israel 2002.’’
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