[lbo-talk] Germans should stop feeling Holocaust guilt: Ahmadinejad

[uvj at vsnl.com]

Reuters.com

Germans should stop feeling Holocaust guilt: Ahmadinejad
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-28T152033Z_01_L28632352_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-AHMADINEJAD-HOLOCAUST.xml&archived=False

Sun May 28, 2006

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they
should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt
over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened.
In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad said he
doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and
said he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer
tournament.

"I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust. More than 60
million were killed in World War Two ... The question is: Why is it that
only Jews are at the center of attention?," he said in the interview
published on Sunday.

"How long is this going to go on?" he added. "How long will the German
people be held hostage to the Zionists?... Why should you feel obligated to
the Zionists? You've paid reparations for 60 years and will have to pay for
another 100 years."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders have said his previous
remarks questioning whether the Holocaust happened were unacceptable.
Denying the Holocaust is a serious crime in Germany punishable with a prison
term of up to five years.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies in concentration
camps.

In the rare interview with Western media, Ahmadinejad said if the Holocaust
really happened Jews should be moved from Israel back to Europe.
"We say if the Holocaust happened, then the Europeans must accept the
consequences and the price should not be paid by Palestine. If it did not
happen, then the Jews must return to where they came from."

WORLD CUP

He said he was still considering going to Germany to support Iran in the
World Cup despite protest stirred by a "worldwide network of Zionists".
Iran's first World Cup match is against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 two
days after the tournament starts and German Interior Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble says he would be welcome to come because Germany wants to be a
good host.

The invitation sparked protests from other political leaders and groups who
said his anti-Israeli comments were unacceptable.

"My decision (on whether to go) depends on a lot of different things," said
Ahmadinejad, a soccer fan. "Whether I have time, whether I want to and some
other things."

He said he could not understand why his possible visit had caused such
debate but was not surprised by the row.

"I was not at all surprised because there is a very active worldwide network
of Zionists, also in Europe," he said in the rare interview with Western
media that was published on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad's latest comments were condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center
in Los Angeles. Rabbi Marvin Hier, a founder and dean, called on Merkel to
keep him out of Germany.

"On a day when the Pope is in Auschwitz to remind the world of the horrors
of the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad questions it again," Hier said. "For him to be
at the World Cup and sit in a VIP seat would be a desecration of the memory
of the Holocaust."

Asked by Der Spiegel, in its cover story entitled "The man the
world is afraid of", whether he stood by his earlier view the Holocaust was
a myth, Ahmadinejad said: "I only accept something as the truth if I am
truly convinced of it.

"In Europe there are two opinions on it. One group of researchers who are by
and large politically motivated say the Holocaust happened. There is another
group of researchers who have the opposite view and are by and large in
prison for that."

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