According to an article in the Associated Press, the Mormon Church says it's removed the name of a Nazi war crimes hunter from its genealogical databases. Simon Wiesental's name was removed at the request of the Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization.
Posthumous baptism is a sacred rite practiced in Mormon temples to offer membership in the church to the deceased. However, Jews are offended by the practice and in 1995 signed an agreement with Mormon leaders that should have prevented the names of Holocaust victims from being added to the genealogical index.
A Mormon Church spokesman issued a statement last night saying Wiesenthal's name was immediately removed from the International Genealogical Index and that no proxy-baptism had been performed for the Jewish civil rights leader.
