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Photo: AP
Exhibit at Yad Vashem Holocaust museum
Photo: AP

Holocaust denier at Yad Vashem

Arab waiter at Holocaust museum's cafeteria told German reporters Holocaust a lie; Yad Vashem spokeswoman says incident 'extremely regrettable'

An Arab waiter working at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem told a group of German reporters who were visiting the museum, "don't believe what you see here. Everything they say about the six million murdered is a lie."

 

The story was published by Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday.

 

The incident, which took place last May, was reported by a journalist at German newspaper Bayern Extra, who was a member of the group. A copy of the paper was recently sent to an Israeli friend of two of the journalists that participated in the mission. The Israeli, Elisheva Ramon, quickly reported it to the museum.

 

According to the article, members of the group who were shaken up by an exhibit at the museum's new wing went to the cafeteria in order to recompose.

 

Suddenly, an Arab waiter approached them and said: "Don't take this too hard. Everything they say about the six million is a lie. Everything documented here is false."

 

Ramon said that despite her complaint to Yad Vashem, not much was done to address the matter.

 

"I told them it wasn't right something like this could happen. I think it's terrible Holocaust denial can take place in an institution dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust. It's outrageous that such a person is employed there," she said.

 

'Workers taken on museum tour'

 

According to Ramon, the museum told her it had no control over the cafeteria, which is operated by a subcontractor.

 

Unwilling to accept this answer, Ramon turned to Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, and his brother Naftali Lavi, and asked them to intervene.

 

"They both tried to do something, but nothing has changed. I was told Jews don't want to work in the cafeteria," she explained.

 

Yad Vashem's Spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg said in response: "The incident in question is extremely regrettable, and we only learned about it several months after it took place. The cafeteria's operator looked into it at out request, but it revealed nothing."

 

"In any event, in the framework of tours we hold for our employees at the new museum's wing, we also held a special tour in Arabic for all the subcontractors' employees, including cafeteria workers," she added.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.26.06, 09:54
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