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Teaching the Holocaust in Tehran

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Yad Vashem has begun broadcasting videos in Farsi.

The Israeli Holocaust memorial museum, which already has an Arabic YouTube channel, has launched the service in a bid to educate Iran’s population about the Nazis.

The videos will highlight the atrocities of the Second World War and the genocide of six million Jews to a population whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has publicly questioned the Holocaust.

In 2005 he told thousands of Iranian citizens at a rally that Jews had "created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets."

The Yad Vashem chairman, Avner Shalev, said: “One of our primary goals is to make credible information about the Holocaust accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

“Today, when there is so much disinformation and distortion easily available online, we provide an alternative to anyone who is interested in the truth.”

Yad Vashem has launched the site to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday.

The date, commemorated around the world, will mark 66 years since the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops.

The museum is also running a Facebook campaign, giving users who join a memorial event the name of a Holocaust victim to remember.

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