Wiesenthal Center: Antisemitic sculpture in Oslo, «would have made Quisling proud»
The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned local Norwegian officials for permitting the erection of a sculpture in a public square slandering the Jewish people and the state of Israel
Entitled Wall: Fragments of History“ on display in the central Youngstorget Square, the statue depicts the Jewish Star of David drenched in blood, dollar signs, and words such as murder,“ and Sabra“ and Shatila,“ referring to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon where hundreds of people were killed in September, 1982 by Lebanese Christian fighters during the Israeli occupation.
This vicious attack on Judaism and its symbols would have certainly made Quisling (Norway’s Nazi ally and puppet during WWII) proud,“ said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Further, by depicting Israel as Nazi-like, it justifies and fuels contemporary European antisemitic sentiment and violence.“
Rabbi Cooper continued, The Jewish community doesn’t need to be reminded about the Holocaust, but apparently many Norwegians have chosen to forget that nearly half of Norway’s Jews were stripped of their rights and mass murdered at Auschwitz. Haven’t their families and those who survived the Nazi Holocaust suffered enough? Do they now have to suffer the further indignity of such slanders?“
During WWII, forty five percent of Norway’s small Jewish community was deported to Auschwitz.
The 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 agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
For more information, contact the Wiesenthal Center’s Public Relations Department at (310) 553-9036.
