Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the rejection by the European Commission of a call by the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to introduce a “double-genocide law” which would make the denial of Communist crimes a criminal offense.
In a statement issued today by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center welcomed the decision as an important milestone in the critical struggle against attempts by post-Communist countries to rewrite the history of World War II and the Holocaust.
According to Zuroff:
“Today’s decision marks the first concrete step taken by the European Union to oppose the ongoing recent campaign by the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe which seeks to promote the canards that the crimes of Communism are equivalent to those of the Nazis, and that the Soviet Union is equally responsible with Nazi Germany for the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust. Rewriting the history of that tragic period in this manner, which also seeks to minimize the important role played by East Eastern local Nazi collaborators in the Holocaust, will not honor the memory of the victims of Communism, but will only shame those supporting this misguided initiative.”
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