An August 28, 2002 article written by Martin Helme—press spokesman for the National Conservative Party-Farmers’ Assembly—blames Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for inciting antisemitism by offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of Nazi collaborators in the Baltic States. In the article, published on the web site of the “SL Ohtuleht” newspaper, Mr. Helme accuses Mr. Zuroff of “creating more enmity towards Jews than the Nazi propaganda of the 1940s” and complains that Estonians should not set aside a day to commemorate the Holocaust since the possibility of Israel commemorating the anniversary of Soviet crimes against Estonians has never been considered. Mr. Helme sums up the most recent Nazi hunting activities of the Simon Wiesenthal Center as a show put on for the benefit of funders in order to guarantee “a comfortable life” for the Center’s “army of staff.”

The day before Mr. Helme’s article appeared, the head of the Res Publica party—Juhan Parts—told the “Eesti Paevaleht” newspaper that he thinks Mr. Zuroff’s “unacceptable behavior” incites ethnic hatred, according to an August 27, 2002 report by the Baltic News Agency. The incitement of ethnic hatred is illegal in Estonia. At the same time, however, Mr. Parts stressed that Estonians “understand the suffering of the Jewish people.”

Both parties are marginal in Estonian politics.

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