Book fair accused of Holocaust denial

By · October 10, 2007

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has accused the Frankfurt Book Fair of promoting Holocaust denial.

At issue is a photo mosaic in the book fair catalog that uses photos of Nazi concentration camps to create a mosaic image of an Arab man at the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank.

Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, wrote to book fair director Juergen Boos objecting to the photo. The German fair, which opened Tuesday, honors Catalan art and culture.

“El Mur,” The Wall, which measures 3 1/2-by-5 feet, is by Joan Fontcuberta. Its caption reads: “The Wall in the Palestinian West Bank. The picture is a mosaic of images from a Google search. Ten thousand photos from the Internet searched for Nazi concentration camps (Search key words include ‘labor camp’, ‘Auschwitz-Birkenau’, ‘Belzec’, ‘Bergen-Belsen’).”

Samuels called the photo “a smug exercise in banalizing the horrors of the Holocaust, an offense to the memory of its victims and to the pain of its survivors, Jews and others – including Catalan fugitives from Franco’s Fascism.”

He asked that the catalog be withdrawn and a public apology be issued.