Holocaust denial a growing and pernicious trend, claims Lenihan

HOLOCAUST DENIAL was described last night in Dublin as “a growing and pernicious trend” by Minister of State Conor Lenihan. He was speaking at the National Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in the Mansion House. The event was “about ensuring the Holocaust will never be forgotten”, he said. It was “as much about the future as the past”.

Recalling that “Ireland is one of the few countries where the Jews were not persecuted”, he referred, however, to incidents in Limerick in 1904 which were “a blemish” that served to remind all to work together to monitor human rights “to ensure that all people in Ireland will be treated with respect”.

Hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the commemoration also featured contributions from Holocaust survivors Zoltan Zinn-Collis, Jan Kaminski, Suzi Diamond and Tomi Reichental, as well as Ms Justice Susan Denham of the Supreme Court, Attorney General Paul Gallagher, Dr Maurice Manning, president of the Irish Human Rights Commission and chancellor of the NUI, and Garda Supt Mary Gormley.

Also contributing were Fine Gael's Nora Owen, Labour's Ruairí Quinn, poet Micheal O'Siadhail, Stephen Molins, president of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, and Denis Staunton, foreign editor of The Irish Times.

Meanwhile, a Czech Holocaust memorial scroll, which ended up in Dublin in 1965, was rededicated at the Progressive Jewish Synagogue in Rathgar by Rabbi Andrew Goldstein at ceremonies over the weekend. The Torah scroll originated with the Jews of Brandys nad Labem and Kostelec nad Labem, about 13 miles northeast of Prague, who were deported to the concentration camp at Terezin in January 1943.