Elie Wiesel, chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, has called upon “all governments and private citizens” to protest the recent imprisonment and execution of members of the Bahai religious group in Iran. “Professing the Bahai faith in Iran is enough to be imprisoned and killed,” he said in a statement released here. “Once again, religious hatred has taken a terrible toll.”
Wiesel said he was “particularly disturbed that echoes of Nazi cruelties are again being heard in our world. It is especially distressing that this occurs in a land ruled by representatives of one of the world’s great religions — Islam.”
Wiesel declared: “All governments and private citizens should not stand idly by while people are executed for religious beliefs. Perhaps the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations should look into this matter, and perhaps an international conference should be called to deal with the question.
“We all vowed after the Nazi outrages — Never Again. Now is the time to act on that vow.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
