Estonian nationalists meeting in Tallin's Hirve Park demanded an apology from the Estonian Jewish community for recent accusations by the Simon Wiesenthal Center related to Estonians who participated in the Holocaust, according to an August 23, 2001 report by the Baltic News Service (BNS). Participants in the rally-held to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, under which Nazi Germany gave its permission to the USSR to attack the Baltic states-warned that if the Jewish community doesn't apologize: "We will be compelled to review our up to now friendly relations with Jews living in Estonia."

Efraim Zuroff from the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been in Estonia for the past several days to press the government to do more to prosecute Nazi war criminals. Earlier, Mr. Zuroff had publicly stated that 1,000-1,200 Estonians voluntarily assisted the Nazis in rounding up and killing Jews, setting off a firestorm of criticism in the Estonian press. According to an August 22 report by BNS, Mr. Zuroff also criticized the fact that Estonian textbooks do not talk about the participation of some Estonians in the Holocaust, despite the fact that an international commission sponsored by the Estonian government has revealed convincing evidence of this fact.

On August 23, BNS reported that thousands of stories and messages posted on Internet bulletin boards and web sites based in Estonia have attacked Mr. Zuroff. Most of the messages totally denied any Estonian guilt in the Holocaust, blaming it all on the Germans. Some were explicitly antisemitic, including the following message quoted by BNS:

"It seems to me that the Jews like to be hated by everybody. Otherwise, why would they over and over again make up such stories, giving people an excuse to once again send them off somewhere even farther away."

On a positive note, BNS reported on August 23 that Prime Minister Mark Laar, after meeting with Mr. Zuroff, announced that Estonia would soon be hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust entitled "The Courage to Remember," becoming only the second post-Communist country (after Croatia) to host the exhibit. Mr. Zuroff met with the Prime Minister to present documentation related to accused Estonian war criminal Harry Mannil.

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