Just weeks after Turkey decided to boycott a Holocaust education conference in Jerusalem, an Iranian delegation visiting Germany refused to tour the Buchenwald concentration camp.
The delegation from the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, the sister city of Weimar, Germany, refused to participate in a scheduled trip to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial on June 23.
Located just outside Weimar, Buchenwald concentration camp was one of the first and largest concentration camps in Germany, accounting for the deaths of 33,462 people.
“Such a visit was right from the beginning never planned, and, therefore, there was no cancellation whatsoever, either,” delegation head and mayor of Shiraz Mehran Etemadi told the official news agency IRNA. “Perhaps the other party might have had some expectations [outside of the agenda], but the protocol was discussed in advance with the Iranian embassy in Berlin.”
According to local media reports, the Iranian government and embassy in Berlin pressured the delegation to cancel the visit.
“Holocaust survivors are aghast at this blatant act of disrespect and moral callousness,” vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants Elan Steinberg told JTA. “Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is notorious for his denial of the Holocaust, and the actions of the mayor of Shiraz and his delegation are effectively another disgraceful expression of this Holocaust denial.”
“We call upon the mayor and municipal authorities of Weimar to protest this clear act of hate and rescind the 'twinned' relationship with Shiraz,” Steinberg said. “By severing such links they will send a message that Shiraz has betrayed the people-to-people component of twinning by its having injected hate and prejudice into the relationship.”
Etemadi said that his delegation’s visit was a success and that the issue would not weaken relations between the two cities. Weimar Mayor Stefan Wolf didn’t share Etemadi’s feelings, saying it was unimaginable that a “friend” would ever ignore the pain caused by Buchenwald.
After refusing to tour the camp, the Weimar City Council reportedly refused to meet the Iranian delegation.
