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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iranian TV runs Holocaust docudrama sympathetic to Jews |
| 2007-09-19 |
| It is Iran's version of "Schindler's List," a miniseries that tells the tale of an Iranian diplomat in Paris who helps Jews escape the Holocaust — and viewers across the country are riveted. That's surprising enough in a country where hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has questioned whether the Holocaust even took place. What's more surprising is that government media produced the series, and is airing it on state-run television. . . . . . . the series titled "Zero Degree Turn" is clearly sympathetic to the Jews' plight during World War II. It shows men, women and children with yellow stars on their clothes being taken forcibly out of their homes and loaded into trucks by Nazi soldiers. "Where are they taking them?" the horrified hero, a young Iranian diplomat who works at the Iranian Embassy in Paris, asks someone in a crowd of onlookers. "The Fascists are taking the Jews to the concentration camps," the man says. The hero, named Habib Parsa, then begins giving Iranian passports to Jews to allow them to flee occupied France to then-Palestine. Though the Habib character is fictional, it is based on a true story of diplomats in the Iranian Embassy in Paris in the 1940s who gave out about 500 Iranian passports for Jews to use to escape. The show's appearance now may reflect an attempt by Iran's leadership to moderate its image as anti-Semitic and to underline a distinction that Iranian officials often make — that their conflict is with Israel, not with the Jewish people. About 25,000 Jews live in Iran, the largest Jewish community in the Middle East after Israel. They have one representative in parliament, which is run mostly by Islamic clerics. The series could not have aired without being condoned by Iran's clerical leadership. The state broadcaster is under the control of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei, who has final say in all matters inside Iran. . . . The government even allowed the series to break another taboo in Iran: For the first time, many actresses appear without the state-mandated Islamic dress code. The producers wanted to realistically portray 1940s Paris, and thus avoided the headscarves and head-to-foot robes that all women must normally wear on Iranian TV. . . . I don't know if this is a leading indicator of anything, or a fluke, or something else entirely, but it's interesting, give it that. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 I though Iran said the Holocaust didn't happen. In any case, I don't think this movie would have stood a chance of getting aired unless Iran was worried about getting redecorated. "The West won't/can't attack" indeed . . . . |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-09-19 17:13 |
| #1 LGF readers followed up on this. It turns out the documentary depicts the Holocaust as being organized by Zionists in cahoots with Hitler out to murder Jews who refused to go to "Palestine". |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-09-19 10:36 |