Holocaust Museum Wants World To Push Iran on Denial
Image by getty images
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum urged world leaders to press Iran’s leadership on its Holocaust denial during the U.N. General Assembly.
“We want to make sure that the upcoming discussion at the United Nations is informed by facts about official Iranian efforts to promote racism and extremism in the form of Holocaust denial,” Tad Stahnke, the director of the museum’s initiative against Holocaust denial, said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters as the General Assembly formally launched in New York.
Stahnke and Maziar Bahari, an Iranian film maker, cautioned against believing claims by reputed moderates like Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that Iran’s government repudiates Holocaust denial.
They noted that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, questioned the veracity of the Holocaust as recently as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January.
They also noted the most recent Holocaust cartoon contest in May, and said Zarif and others played word games when they said there was no “government” involvement. There are two “governments” in Iran, they said, and while the formal government may avoid Holocaust denial, the “system” of semi- and quasi-governmental authorities, including the Revolutionary Guard, is steeped in it.
The Holocaust museum’s website includes pages exposing Iranian Holocaust denial and pages in Persian explaining the Holocaust.
Also featured on the website is a short film about Abdolhossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat in Paris who rescued Jews during the Holocaust by issuing them passports.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
