ZAGREB, March 26 (Hina) - The association "Friends of Animals", which together with the world's biggest organisation for the protection of animals PETA organised "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibition in downtown Zagreb on Wednesday,
has said that the purpose of the event is not to downplay the horrors experienced by the victims of Nazism, but to accentuate "the trivialisation of the killing of animals".
ZAGREB, March 26 (Hina) - The association "Friends of Animals", which
together with the world's biggest organisation for the protection of
animals PETA organised "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibition in
downtown Zagreb on Wednesday, has said that the purpose of the event
is not to downplay the horrors experienced by the victims of Nazism,
but to accentuate "the trivialisation of the killing of animals".#L#
The controversial international project, which features side by side
photos of animal farms and Nazi concentration camps, elicited strong
reactions from various associations, which believe that it degrades
Holocaust victims.
Dismissing the accusations, the "Friends of Animals" association said
in a statement on Friday that the purpose of the project was to "make
people see that the victimisation of the victims of the Nazi regime is
equivalent to the way the modern society abuses animals and justifies
their slaughtering".
The association adds that Jewish intellectuals such as Nobel prize
winner Isaac Bashevis and philosopher Theodor Adorno were the first to
notice similarities between animal farms and Nazi concentration
camps.
The purpose of the exhibition is not to promote one group of victims
at the expense of others, but to logically demonstrate that all forms
of abuse should be abandoned, said the organisers of the exhibition,
which is to tour a dozen European cities between mid-March and April
8.
Reacting to the exhibition, which it described as deeply insulting for
the victims and the public, the Association for the Protection of
Religious Freedoms in Croatia said the campaign promoting the rights
of animals was in itself valuable, but that it had to fight its fight
with its own means and credibility, and not by trivialising the
horrors of history.
The campaign has also been condemned by the Memorial Museum of the
Holocaust, the central Israeli institution for the protection of the
memory of the victims of Nazism and Fascism, Yad Vashem, and the Simon
Wiesenthal Centre.
(Hina) rml