The BBC has apologised after multiple presenters failed to specifically mention in the corporation’s coverage of Holocaust Memorial Day that six million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis, referring to them merely as “people”.
Presenters leading broadcasts on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and BBC Breakfast both referred to “the six million people murdered by the Nazi regime over 80 years ago”, with a number of other presenters using similar language.
The Campaign for Media Standards watchdog organisation accused the Corporation of “having used the same script all day”, and asking “why is the BBC so squeamish about the Jewish identity of the 6 million slaughtered in an antisemitic genocide?”
Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) issued a response to all those who removed mention of the Jews from statements or events marking Holocaust Memorial Day, stating that: “the Holocaust was the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children. Ignoring that the victims were Jews, widening the figure to include all victims of the Second World War, or attempting to draw in contemporary conflicts is an abuse of the memory of the Holocaust and an insult to victims and survivors.”
Specifically responding to the BBC’s omission this morning, Pollock said: “I just don’t understand how this ‘mistake’ was made?”
Danny Cohen, former BBC Director of Television and Controller of BBC 1, said: ‘A failure like this on Holocaust Memorial Day marks a new low point for the national broadcaster.
‘It is surely the bare minimum to expect the BBC to correctly identify that it was six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. To say anything else is an insult to their memory and plays into the hands of extremists who have desperately sought to rewrite the historical truth of history’s greatest crime.
“This will be very painful to many in the Jewish community and will reinforce their view that the BBC is insensitive to the concerns of British Jews.”
The BBC released a statement saying: “This morning’s BBC programming commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day. The Today programme featured interviews with relatives of Holocaust survivors and a report from our religion editor. In both of these items we referenced the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
“The chief rabbi recorded the Thought for the Day. BBC Breakfast featured a project organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust in which a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust recorded her memories. In the news bulletins on Today and in the introduction to the story on BBC Breakfast there were references to Holocaust Memorial Day which were incorrectly worded, and for which we apologise. Both should have referred to ‘six million Jewish people’ and we will be issuing a correction on our website.”
However, Stephen Silverman, director of investigations at the Campaign Against Antisemitism, described the Corporation’s apology as “worthless”.
Speaking to LBC, Silverman said: “It’s impossible to deny that there is an institutional problem with regard to Jewish matters at the BBC. We’ve seen it amplified over the last two years but it goes way back beyond that.”
The CAA representative described how “there is this attempt that has been going on for a very long time to universalise the Holocaust, to remove its Jewish specificity, and to make it a progressive cause that quite rightly acknowledges other genocides and atrocities, but completely diminishes and eradicates the Jewish nature of it.”
