Wiesenthal Center Harshly Criticizes Latvian Veto of Holocaust Exhibition at UNESCO

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized steps taken by the Latvian delegation to UNESCO which effectively cancelled an exhibition about the Holocaust inLatvia scheduled to open this coming Sunday at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

In a statement issued here by its Israel director Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the action by the Latvians "an outrageous and ultimately futile attempt to hide theextensive Latvian collaboration with the Nazis in perpetrating Holocaust crimes" and urged UNESCO officials to consider steps to allow the exhibition titled "Stolen Childhood: Holocaust VictimsSeen by Child Inmates of the Salaspils Nazi Concentration Camp " to be shown to the public.

According to Zuroff:

"This step by the Latvians is part of a systematic effort by the Baltic countries to hide the truth about the extensive collaboration with theNazis of Balts in the implementation of the Final Solution in their native countries, as well as in Poland and Belarus. Instead of complaining that the exhibition risked damaging her country'sreputation, Latvia's chief delegate to UNESCO should have welcomed an effort to expose the wartime collaboration of so many Latvians as part of an honest confrontation with her country's bloodyHolocaust past."

For more information, please contact Dr. Efraim Zuroff 972.50.721.4156,Twitter: @EZuroff, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agenciesincluding the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).