A mixed bag of Holocaust deniers and people who question whether the mass persecution of Jewish people in the mid-part of the 20th century ever took place are currently meeting in the Iranian capital, Tehran, at the 'Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision' conference, which got underway on Monday, 11 December.
The meeting has been organised by the research institute of Iran's foreign affairs ministry, and, in his opening address, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki commented that it was the intention to give these 'learned researchers' a free platform to discuss this issue, a platform which is denied them in Europe. Around 100 people, two thirds of them from countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Indonesia and the United States, have been invited to attend. However, the Iranians claim that the authorities at certain German airports prevented a few participants from travelling to the meeting.
'A great insult'
The organisers decided that the speeches at the conference should not target Jews, but 'Zionists'. Iran itself is home to around 30,000 Jews, the largest Jewish population in the Middle East after that of Israel. The Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament, Morris Motamed, has said: "the denial of the Holocaust is a great insult."
The organisers say the conference is a logical follow-on to the questions which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pictured below) voiced in public earlier this year. At one point he wondered that, supposing the Holocaust is actually a myth, "why should the Palestinians suffer for it?" Iran, of course, does not formally recognise the State of Israel.
Many of those at the conference share the president's views, including a number of Orthodox Jewish, but anti-Zionist Rabbis with traditional long side-curls and black hats, who have been seen seated in the front rows of the conference hall. According to members of the Jewish 'Neturei Karta' movement, Israel is in fact an illegal state. Their leader, Rabbi Cohen, says God drove the Jews from Israel into exile in the four corners of the world, adding during his address to the conference: "We are prohibited [...] from creating our own state in Palestine".
Another attendee is Alfred Hoff, a German who has made his own study of the persecution of the Jews. "I was nine when my parents died during the Second World War. I have had to do everything myself. After years of study, I have proven that the Holocaust never took place."He's fearful about returning to Germany after the meeting, because denial of the Holocaust is forbidden under German law: "Perhaps they will detain me, I don't know." As he speaks, he's holding a copy of his own book on the Holocaust, entitled "Mirror of lies" (Spiegel der Leugens ).
Fingers of one hand
A total of 67 foreigners from some 30 countries have been invited by the Islamic Republic of Iran to speak at the conference. In theory, both those who deny and those who adhere to the 'Holocaust theory' were due to have speaking time, but the number of people at the meeting who actually believe the Holocaust took place can be counted on the fingers of just one hand.
The Iranians in fact refused the visa request from one Arab Israeli - who wanted to come to argue that the Holocaust did actually happen - because he possesses an Israeli passport, which the authorities in Iran do not recognise. Rabbi Cohen, who is at the conference, is therefore alone in maintaining that the persecution and extermination of the Jews absolutely did take place: "We cannot deny this. That would be a disgrace."
Elsewhere in the complex where the conference is being hosted, there's an exhibition on the Holocaust. It contains photos and books which cast doubt on whether it happened, but there are others which do the exact opposite. The students who created the exhibition have never visited Auschwitz (the former concentration camp in Poland), Germany or any part of Europe, but that hasn't stopped them from conducting a lot of research into the Holocaust. One of them, 28-year-old Hossein Maddani explains, "We have read hundreds of books."
Palestinian 'Holocaust'
The fact that their country, Iran, has organised this meeting comes as no surprise to these students. As they see it, their nation wants to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians, who are also experiencing a 'Holocaust'. Also, Iran doesn't recognise Israel or its right to exist, and - as one of them says:
However, they don't want to draw any final conclusions just yet, because:
"We still need to do more research."Added to all of this, there's their belief that Iran has become a powerful nation, and that means it should also have an active foreign policy. "Look at the United States. That country looks to have influence everywhere," Hossein Maddani explains, adding that it backs pro-western governments in various Arab nations, among them Lebanon. "During the regime of Khatami [Iran's previous, and pro-reform president] we tried to get closer to the West. That failed. Now we're going full steam on the political attack. Perhaps that's the best form of defence. This is a cultural war."
* RNW Internet translation (tpf)
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Alfred, anti-Zionist, Auschwitz, Hoff, Holocaust, Israel, Mottaki, Neturei Karta, Palestinians, Rabbi Cohen, Spiegel der Leugens, State, Tehran