NEW YORK -- Reacting to Thursday’s announcement that Finland’s government has decided to criminalize Holocaust denial, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder released the following statement:
“Open discourse is one of the keys to a healthy democratic society, but for too long there have been those who have hidden behind the shield of free speech while desecrating the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
“I join the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Finland in thanking the country’s government for its decision to criminalize Holocaust denial. No one should be able to use our suffering as a talking point. In addition, I support the further efforts to investigate the possibility of also criminalizing the use of Nazi symbols in Finland.
“The government’s decision that Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January will now be recognized as such signifies the central role of the Jewish community in the act of suitably memorializing those that it lost during the Holocaust and aligns with international practices.”
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