Letter To: Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister

Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister
ChristianBorg
Prins Jorgens Gard 17
1218 Copenhagen K
Denmark

Mr. Prime Minister,

On behalf of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s over 400,000 members, we strenuously protest today’s award of 100,000 kronorto Erik Haaest, dubbed “The Holocaust Sceptic” in the Danish media.

Haaest reportedly received this prize from your Ministry of Culture’s Arts Council (Kunst Raadet) for his work on “TheDanish Friekorps on the Eastern Front 1941 – 1965” – hardly a symbol of Danish National pride.

Indeed, Haaest’s citations from Holocaust denial literature go back to the 1959 volume of the Journal of HistoricalReview published by the institute of the same name, frequented by neo-Nazis worldwide.

Today’s DR Nyheder, Culture section, under a photo of the gas chamber states, “Erik Haaest questions existence of gaschambers at Auschwitz KZ in Poland.” Another publication reports Haaest as declaring Anne Frank’s diary “A swindle.”

Mr. Prime Minister, your government’s award to Haaest violated the commitments of Denmark to the European Commission andto the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

This act legitimizes the end product of Holocaust denial, incitement to antisemitism and an offense to Holocaustsurvivors and to the families of all victims of Nazism.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center urges you to immediately withdraw this outrageous award, to investigate its circumstancesand publicly dismiss those responsible.

Silence would only be construed by hate mongers as a seal of approval.

Most Respectfully,

Dr. Shimon Samuels
Director of International Relations

Cc:

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder & Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
Karen Fracapane, Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research