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Wiesel says attack shows Holocaust deniers are getting bolder

ROME -- Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel said in an interview published Monday that an attack on him earlier this month in San Francisco shows that Holocaust deniers are increasing worldwide and getting bolder by the day.

The Holocaust scholar was dragged from an elevator and roughed up during a peace conference at a San Francisco hotel on Feb. 1, according to police. The author was not injured.

"Until today they used words; now they have switched to violence," Wiesel told Milan-based daily Corriere della Sera. "Their numbers are growing by the day."

The assailant fled after Wiesel began to scream, and police have opened a criminal investigation.

San Francisco Police Sgt. Steve Mannina confirmed authorities have located a suspect on the East Coast. They believe the unidentified man traveled to San Francisco to carry out the attack, Mannina said, refusing to elaborate.

The 78-year-old Holocaust survivor said the incident shook him and that, for the first time since World War II, he felt he was being personally targeted.
Read entire article at AP