Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
US stars accuse Bonn of Nazi view on Scientology
The Daily Telegraph, January 10, 1997, Friday
From nobody@huge.cajones.com Mon Jan 13 12:53:25 GMT 1997 SECTION: Pg. 04 LENGTH: 395 words HEADLINE: US stars accuse Bonn of Nazi view on Scientology BYLINE: BY ANDREW GIMSON AND VICTORIA COMBE BODY: HOLLYWOOD celebrities accused Chancellor Kohl yesterday of allowing a Nazi-style persecution of members of the Scientology sect, write Andrew Gimson and Victoria Combe. Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman and Oliver Stone were among 34 names who signed an open letter to the Chancellor which appeared as a full-page advertisement in yesterday's International Herald Tribune. The letter compared Germany's treatment of the Scientologists to Hitler's treatment of the Jews in the 1930s and claimed that the sect was subject to "organised persecution". The signatories are not Scientologists but the sect has a stronghold in Hollywood. Its members include John Travolta, Tom Cruise, his wife, Nicole Kidman, Priscilla and Lisa-Marie Presley and Demi Moore. The letter was the idea of Bertram Fields, a Jewish lawyer, who paid the pounds 38,000 advertising fee and gathered the signatures, among them Tina Sinatra, Larry King, the talk show host, and Gore Vidal, the writer. The letter said: "In the Germany of the 1930s, Hitler made religious intolerance official government policy. Jews were at first marginalised then excluded from many activities, then vilified and ultimately subjected to unspeakable horrors. "The world stood by in silence. Perhaps if people had spoken up, taken a stronger stand, history would tell a different story. We cannot change history, but we can try not to relive it." Chancellor Kohl said: "They have no idea about Germany, and don't want to have any idea. Otherwise, they wouldn't have come up with something like that." German politicians have made swingeing attacks on Scientology. Norbert Blum the Employment Minister, made allegations about its financial organisation and the youth faction of Chancellor Kohl's party, the Christian Democratic Union, called for a boycott of the films Mission Impossible, starring Tom Cruise, and Phenomenon, with John Travolta. Chick Corea, the American jazz musician and a Scientologist, had his German concerts cancelled last year. Graeme Wilson, spokesman at Scientology headquarters in East Grinstead, Sussex, said none of the celebrity members signed the letter in order to increase its impact. "We want to get across the message that it is not just discrimination against Scientologists, but discrimination against religion." The Home Office has recently allowed Scientologists entry as ministers.
Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive