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Monday February 12, 2007

Holocaust denier attacks Elie Wiesel in San Francisco

joe eskenazi
staff writer

San Francisco police are reporting that a self-identified Holocaust denier who allegedly stalked Elie Wiesel for weeks attacked the 78-year-old survivor, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner in San Francisco on Thursday, Feb. 1.

Wiesel, who was in town for the “Facing Violence: Justice, Religion and Conflict Resolution” conference put on by San Francisco’s RockRose Institute, claims a man demanding he admit the falsity of the Holocaust and his seminal book “Night” attempted to drag him out of an elevator and into his hotel room.

A man calling himself Eric Hunt posted an account of his attempted abduction of Wiesel that the SFPD says corresponds closely with Wiesel’s own account.

Hunt’s essay, posted on a virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist Web site, details his quest to coerce Wiesel into denying the Holocaust, on videotape.

In the Web posting, Hunt mocks the 78-year-old Wiesel with the somewhat repetitive slur of “an insane lunatic” for shouting for help while being forcefully dragged out of an Argent Hotel elevator.

“I told him, ‘Why, you don’t want people to know the truth?’ His expression changed, and he began screaming again. HELP! HELP! So, after pulling him about fifteen feet out of the elevator, alerting a few floors, I decided that it was time for me to go. He was no use to our worldwide struggle for freedom if he had a heart attack,” wrote Hunt.

“I had planned on either: getting Wiesel into my custody, with a cornered Wiesel finally forced to state the truth on videotape, getting arrested, or fleeing, and either way, exposing the ‘Pope of the Holocaust religion’ for being nothing but a genocidal liar.”

Hunt went on to conjecture that Wiesel knew not to call the police as they would expose his “multiple counts of perjury” which “put innocent and honorable Germans through misery and death” and created “the myth of ‘The Holocaust’ as the President of Iran has rightfully pointed out.”

Sgt. Neville Gittens of the SFPD stated, however, that calling them is the very first thing Wiesel did after freeing himself from the attacker.

Police have informed the media that there is a suspect in this case, but have not confirmed it is the same person who made the Internet posting. At this time, it is unclear if Eric Hunt is even a real person. Gittens said, at this point, the assailant would be facing assault charges.

RELATED STORY:

In S.F. speech, Elie Wiesel questions limits of human cruelty

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