Iranian News: Turkey to Broadcast Pro-Holocaust Film

Turkish Public Telesion is set to air the Pro-Holocaust film “Shoah” on one of its 14 channels.
Iranian Press TV reported:

The Turkish public television (TRT) is set to air a Holocaust documentary said to be the first broadcast of its kind by a Muslim country’s national media.

A TRT spokesman said the 1985 French production, titled Shoah, will be shown on one of the network’s 14 channels, AFP reported.

Sponsored by the Paris-based Aladdin Project, the nine-hour-plus documentary is directed by Claude Lanzmann and has never been completely shown in a Muslim country.

Shoah mostly consists of interviews with those who claim to be Holocaust-survivors, exploring the alleged killing of European Jews in Nazi death camps during the World War II.

Turkey’s move can be considered as controversial and unacceptable since Muslim nations hold that Holocaust believers have lost touch with the reality and that western governments are using the saga to play the role of innocent victims.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has on several occasions called for a historical research to find realities about the Holocaust. His remarks have sparked outrage among the pro-Israeli powers, which labeled him a Holocaust denier.

Prominent American scholar Norman Finkelstein argues in his book The Holocaust Industry (2000) that many exploit the myth of Holocaust as an “ideological weapon”, saying this is also the case with Israel, “one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, [can] cast itself as a victim state” in order to garner “immunity to criticism.”

The documentary was shown last year in Iran.

#1 January 29, 2012 at 11:54 am
listingstarboard commented:

Rick Perry was right.
#2 January 29, 2012 at 11:57 am
Conservative to the Core commented:

The whole thing is on YouTube as well.
#3 January 29, 2012 at 12:08 pm
pamiam commented:

Another issue on which GOV. PERRY was correct
#4 January 29, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Russ commented:

I wouldn’t exactly characterize Shoah as “pro-Holocaust” – that does more than imply that it’s in favor of the Holocaust. You might want to re-word that.
#6 January 29, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Mo commented:

This would actually go against the regime of Erdogan, as it’s ANTI-Holocaust, if this is true that it’s being aired in Turkey. It will possibly engender some pro-Israeli feelings, or at least ameliorate some of the bigotry present in Turkey now. However, Turkey, until the ascendancy of Erdogan and the Islamists, was neutral to even being almost pro-Israel. Israelis traveled extensively to Turkey for vacations, and there was a healthy trade between the countries.

The vacation trade is dead, and I think the merchant trade has diminished enormously.

Agree with comment abovce that wording of this story needs to be changed, as for those who don’t know Lanzmann’s “Shoah” might think it is anti-Jewish and Nazi loving. While there is enormous and growing pure anti-Jewish sentiment in the Arab/Muslim world, (the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the classic insane conspiracy theory of how Jews control the world, and written most likely by Czarist agents in Russia before the Revolution, is a big bestseller in the Muslim world), this is not an example of that.

If anything, I’m quite shocked that Turkish TV would show a sympathetic view of the Holocaust right now.
#7 January 29, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Tjexcite commented:

#6 January 29, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Socrates commented:

…What about this movie makes it “Pro-Holocaust”?

PressTV says it is, so it must be or something like that.
#8 January 29, 2012 at 12:55 pm
pst314 commented:

The film is PRO-holocaust???

That is wildly at odds with everything I’ve ever heard about the film in the last 25 years.
#9 January 29, 2012 at 12:59 pm
jorgen commented:

The film is PRO-holocaust???

Yes, “Pro-holocaust” means that one believe that the holocaust took place.
Iran’s President is “anti-holocaust”.
#10 January 29, 2012 at 1:34 pm
USMC Thomas commented:

American scholar Norman Finkelstein is free to have his pacifist beliefs, just don’t block my field of fire.
#11 January 29, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Really? commented:

Jim: This posting at BEST is confusing! By calling “Shoah” pro-holocaust it sounds as though the movie is encouraging Holocausts!
My Mother-in-law (who is still living) is a Holocaust survivor. She and many of her survivor friends were interviewed for “Shoah”. It documents what really happened in order to combat holocaust-deniers.
She is a huge Glenn Beck and Ronald Reagan fan, and is very worried about the future of the USA under Obama.
#12 January 29, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Georga commented:

“Pro-holocaust” is a strange way to describe the film, but I get it in light of proving that there indeed was a holocaust and it left scars on humanity that must be remembered.
#14 January 29, 2012 at 2:23 pm
NavoneNew5 commented:

shoah is an anti holocaust film widely shown in israel. my parents are survivors. anyone that calls shoah a pro holocaust film probably also calls ron paul a nut. oh thats right, mr hoft is mr always right. well consider this http://bloggersagainstpolitics.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/conspiracy-911-and-war-against-iran/
#15 January 29, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Aaron Z. commented:

The title of this post should be changed to something like “Turkey to broadcast landmark documentary about Holocaust.”
#16 January 29, 2012 at 2:48 pm
dba...vagabond trader commented:

Very surprised this is being shown in Turkey, wonder how long it’ll last. A powerful testimony of the Shoah, comprised of many disturbing interviews with survivors, perpetrators and bystanders.
#17 January 29, 2012 at 3:24 pm
ER commented:

While on first glance it might seem surprising that anti-Israel Turkey is showing a sympathetic-to-Jews film revealing truth about the Holocaust, I actually wasn’t surprised to hear of this, since looking at the horror of the Holocaust might seem (in Turkey’s view) a way to diminish the atrocities of the Armenian genocide, an issue now in the news again as France is recognizing the Turkish slaughters of the Armenians as a genocide, something that EU-aspirin Turkey is very upset against.
#18 January 29, 2012 at 3:29 pm
Lady Mondegreen commented:

This is very strange reporting. In addition to the strange description of the film as pro-holocaust, it talks about interviews with “those who claim to have been victims” and also about “alleged killing of European Jews…” My guess is that the source of this article stinks.

As for Turkish antisemitism, it exists, but it doesn’t run very deep. Turkey’s tradition of good relations with the Jews runs much deeper. Yes, it is a predominantly Muslim country, but as long ago as 1492, the Ottoman Sultan sent a fleet to Cadiz to evacuate Jews when they were expelled from Spain. Jews in the Ottoman were geearally safer than they were in most European countries (including England and France) until the 19th century. Even then they were better off than the Jews of Russia and Poland. And, finally, when Ataturk ended the Caliphate, and established a rigorously secular state with complete freedom of religion. On that last point, we might be in better shape if Ataturk had kept the keys of Mecca and Medina and not returned them to the House of Saud.
#19 January 29, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Taqiyyotomist commented:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W0WcZu9O74

“Shoah” Part 1 of 59.

This should be shown on American television, every year.
#20 January 29, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Coasta commented:

#20 – Agree!!
#22 January 29, 2012 at 5:17 pm
mike commented:

Conservative websites have a moral obligation to tell the truth. “Shoah” is not pro-Holocaust. Yes, I have seen it.
#24 January 29, 2012 at 7:01 pm
Travis commented:

I am sorry that Perry’s campaign tanked. He certainly had a good grasp of foreign policy.
#25 January 30, 2012 at 6:23 am
Elaine S. commented:

I did a double take when I saw this film described as “pro-Holocaust” also. Perhaps a better headline would simply be “Turkey to Broadcast Holocaust Documentary” or something like that. “Pro-Holocaust” makes it sound like the filmmakers approved of the Holocaust.
#26 January 30, 2012 at 9:16 am
pst314 commented:

Is Jim Hoft going to correct this post?