by Nathan H

Created on: March 14, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran opened a Holocaust conference that it said would examine whether the genocide took place, claiming the meeting was an opportunity for discussion in an atmosphere free of Western taboos.

The conference, "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision," was initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Even before it opened, the gathering was condemned by Germany, the United States and Israel.

The organizers, the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, say the two-day conference has drawn 67 foreign researchers from 30 countries.

In his opening speech, the institute's chief, Rasoul Mousavi, said the conference provided an opportunity to discuss "questions" about the Holocaust away from Western taboos and the restrictions imposed on scholars in Europe.

In Germany, Austria and France, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/ap_on_ re_mi_ea/iran_holoc aust_conference

This conference sickens me. Iran is hosting a conference and inviting Holocaust deniers to speak at the conference. If the Holocaust never happened, or if Jews fabricated the numbers of Jews killed by Hitler; then Iran can argue that Israel has no legitimate claims to Palestine. In other words, the justification for the state's creation would be taken away. Iranian Foreign

Minister Manouchehr Mottaki argued, "If the official version of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt. And if, during this review, it is proved that the Holocaust was a historical reality, then what is the reason for the Muslim people of the region and the Palestinians having to pay the cost of the Nazis' crimes?"

I have heard Holocaust survivors recount the horrors of the Holocaust, and I have touched a bar of skin made of human flesh and a tiny shoe lost by one of the children killed by the Nazis. A mountain of documentary evidence supports the Holocaust, and I have had friends tour Auschwitz and report on the physical evidence. This conference is an outrage to the families of Holocaust victims and survivors.

Auschwitz Museum Website
http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/start/in dex.php

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