Posted on 12/09/2005 3:30:08 PM PST by Jean S
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had summoned Iran's ambassador to protest against suggestions by Iran's president that the Holocaust might not have happened and that Israel should be moved to Europe.
Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said at a government news conference the decision to deliver a formal protest to Iran's envoy in Berlin was meant to show that Berlin was taking the president's comments very seriously.
"We have summoned the Iranian ambassador," Jaeger told reporters. "When one summons an ambassador, then you signal the start of something in diplomacy, that there are grounds for serious discussion."
The remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a news conference in the Saudia Arabian city of Mecca, follow his call in October for Israel to be "wiped off the map", which sparked widespread international condemnation.
Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. Regarding this, Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official Iranian news agency IRNA as saying on Thursday:
"Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?" he said.
"If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe -- like in Germany, Austria or other countries -- to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it."
SANCTIONS
German Jewish leaders called for political sanctions against the Islamic republic over Ahmadinejad's remarks. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.
Paul Spiegel, head of the Jewish Council, told ARD television: "I telephoned the Chancellor (Angela Merkel) and made clear that the time for verbal comment is over. There now has to be action. The comments of this man, first a few weeks ago and again yesterday, are the worst I have heard...from a statesman since Adolf Hitler."
In another statement, he said Ahmadinejad had shown that he was not only a Holocaust-denier but a rabble-rouser.
"Political instruments ranging from political and economic sanctions to expulsion from the United Nations must finally be seriously looked at and used," he added.
Michel Friedman, chairman of the German chapter of the international Jewish organization Keren Hayesod, said Germany should begin by severing diplomatic ties with Tehran.
"A few weeks ago he said Israel should be destroyed. Now he denies and relativises the Holocaust. This can no longer be tolerated diplomatically. I call on the government ... to sever diplomatic ties with Iran," Friedman told N24 news television.
Germany is the biggest exporter to Iran.
Jews died....as did Russians, Romanians, Poles, gypsies take your pick...........all died. The fire bombings of Dresden wasn't exactly the high point of the Allies either.....
People have different points of views, depending on which of your friends and/or family are dying at the time.
Boy, that's going to scare the hell out of them.
Thanks for that summary...it does enlighten me quite a bit, as to this mothers attitude...this mother would have been in school a little before the 70s, and I can see, from your facts, that she would have been in school at a time when the Holocaust was not talked about...I always did wonder about her attitude about this, and now I can see...thanks again...
Sounds like you should email Merkel!
Dang. Didn't catch that. Holy cow. I wonder what she did.
Iran is quaking in it's boots.
My, my, my. Major changes in Iran are about to occur.- Yeah, right.
Indeed. And if they don't behave, they'll sick the French on them if "serious discussion" doesn't resolve the problem. And why doensn't this "serious discussion" ever involve actually going over the problem area to attempt to develop grass roots support at the street level. Gee, I wonder!
Indeed an interesting take. I have two volumes about Adolf AND the book Exodus. Hitler's powers of persuasion, had they been harnessed for good, in LOVE, could have transformed the world in a much different way.
People died.
Only Jews were hunted and marked for death.
Only Jewish babies were systematically targeted. And Jewish old people. And Jews in between. And Jewish males. And females. And Jews if they were Liberals or if they were Conservatives. If they had dark features or looked more Aryan then the Germans. Religious or secular. Professors or ditch diggers. Sick or healthy. Virgins and pregnant women.
Jews were marked for death. All Jews. Everywhere.
Pity you can't understand the difference between casualties of war and deliberate targets of murder and horror and barbaric medical experiments.
I'm guessing the collective muslims in Germany would kick their ass if they were coordinated.
Good points. - I agree with you.
The part that galls is that, after the fact, the EU elite will score big points for it's Socialist agenda by bashing our country and it's contributions and sacrifices.
If the Iraq/Iran war ended in a stalemate, probably as good as Iraq's. Saddam never trained a professional army, just conscripted them. That's the main problem right now for us. Training and discipline. But they ARE volunteering NOW!
Iran's elite elected an irresponsible crackpot as a leader. He IS going to make a mistake. We have 4 or 5 bases on his right side and a bunch on his left and top side.
The average Iranian is not against us. They just need to be informed their crackpot made a mistake.
I think it was Studs Terkel, when he talked about going into the camps, that made statements similar to what you are saying...he does recall being in the neighborhoods, close enough to the camps to have at least heard the trains, smell the awful smell, and still maintained that they knew nothing...
But as I have said, who knows what any of us would have done under similar circumstances...we know what we would like to believe of ourselves, but cannot know until tested...
Save it SA. I said that people with fire bombs raining down in Dresden have a different view than Jews, Poles, Russians etc. Save your rants for where ever you can actually find antisemitism, and just deal with history.
I remember when I was a little boy seeing the first pictures of prison camp survivors in the newspapers. It was a real shock. I can understand a mother not wanting her child to see it, although what this mother's motives were I don't know.
From what she said to me, it was not that the pics in and of themselves were so shocking...what she objected to, was that these deeds had been done by Germans...she did not like her son knowing this, and I actually had no idea she felt this way, until this incident happened...I, in no way disparaged Germans, but I did answer the childrens questions when they came up, and when I told them about the Nazis and who they were, it of course came out that they were Germans...it was not my intent to slur anyone, just my intent to present truthful answers to their questions...
Had my older boy been looking at pics of killed Native Americans at Wounded Knee, and the younger ones asked me who killed them, I would have answered truthfully, chosing not to lie or sanitize the truth...
In short, the whole incident was quite an experience for both me and my two sons...they learned some history, and they learned some peoples reactions to that history..it was a valuable teaching lesson for them...
My comment were not addressed to people who had bombs falling on them but to one who saw a comparison.
To tell the truth, I think she was wrong to try to conceal the truth. It would be better to admit that sometimes Germans did things wrong. That's very different from saying that Germany is always wrong.
We once had a German au pair girl watching our kids one summer. She was pretty good except when she got on the subject of politics, when she would tell us that Germany should go out and recover all its lost territories in Poland and the East. Then she would get pretty fiery. That was before the Berlin Wall fell.
She was partly right, of course, because after the war the Soviet Union basically shoved Poland to the West, taking part of its eastern territories into itself and moving part of what had been Germany into Poland. But it was still disturbing, and I didn't think that attacking Russia was the sensible solution.
I'll attempt to make it more clear to you.
You wrote "Jews died".
On 9/11/2001, many Americans died. Some from excruciating cancer. Some in traffic accidents. In different ways.
At the WTC, Pentagon, and in the airlines. Americans were murdered. That's why they stand out.
Millions of Jews didn't die during WWII. They were all deliberately tortured and murdered.
As I got to know this woman better, it became somewhat obvious that she did not really like America, or many Americans for that matter...she could not understand why the public schools tried to educate all its children, but she seemed to think that those too 'stupid' to learn should be kicked out of school at age 16...she wanted the schools to cater to her obviously 'brilliant' son...
One time a package arrived to her from Germany, a box of chocolates...it had been opened, and some of the candies had been eaten...of course, she had to tell me, that of course, it was the USA postal people who had done this, as no German person would have done it...well, the truth of the matter is, no one knows who did it or why...but she was quick to assign blame to Americans, without any proof...
As time went on, I saw more and more of this behavior on her part, and so much of it was really anti-American...it always amazed me that she would marry an American GI, take advantage of the military system of health care, the PX, the commissary, and yet complain and bad mouth Americans all the time...it got so that she got on my nerves...I just dont know why she was so anti-American all the time...
Thankfully, we were transfered and moved far away from them...
Yes, the comparison between dead civilians (of one religion) and dead civilians (of another religion) isn't that hard to make.
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