Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Holocaust may have been invented by the victorious Allied powers in World War II to embarrass Germany, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported Monday.
The remarks by the outspoken Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly questioned the veracity of the Holocaust, came in a letter sent to Merkel in July whose contents have not been disclosed until now.
"Is it not a reasonable possibility that some countries that had won the war made up this excuse to constantly embarrass the defeated people ... to bar their progress," Ahmadinejad said in the letter.
"The question is if these countries, especially Britain, felt responsible for the Holocaust survivors, why they did not settle them in their own countries?" it said.
It is not the first time Ahmadinejad has voiced doubt about the mass slaughter of six million Jews under Nazi Germany, previously describing the Holocaust as a "myth" used to justify the creation of Israel. "By promoting the necessity of settlement of Holocaust survivors in the occupied Palestine, they have created a constant threat in the Middle East," he said, referring to Israel.
Merkel on July 21 indicated that she would not formally respond to the letter, saying it contained "totally unacceptable" criticism of Israel and "constantly put in question" the Jewish state's right to exist.
Ahmadinejad blamed what he described as propaganda after World War II for making "some people feel historically guilty and indefinitely pay for the crimes of their fathers."
The letter came as it emerged Iran is to hold an international conference on the Holocaust on December 11-12 that would allow historians to present "hidden aspects" of the Nazi atrocities.
Media reports said the conference would touch on issues including the "reasons for anti-Semitism in Europe", "the Holocaust and Zionism", "the Holocaust in historical documents" and "Holocaust: rules and media".
Ahmadinejad in his letter also praised the German people as a nation with potential in science, art, philosophy and politics, but "who are not allowed to play their constructive role in the world."
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