Fury as BBC does not say Jews when referring to 6 million Holocaust victims | UK | News | EUROtoday

The BBC has been criticised for failing to say Jews when overlaying the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The broadcaster lined the day of sombre reflection on the homicide of six million males, girls and youngsters in Nazi loss of life camps throughout World War II, however failed to say they have been Jewish.

BBC Breakfast presenter Jon Kay launched a phase on remembrance occasions to mark the date immediately by saying it was a “day for remembering the six million people who were murdered by the Nazi regime over 80 years ago”.

Radio 4’s Today programme repeated the gaffe by broadcasting that “buildings across the UK will be illuminated this evening to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the six million people murdered by the Nazi regime more than 80 years ago”.

The UK’s Holocaust Memorial Trust mentioned January 27 was the date when “we remember the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered, and the millions more murdered under Nazi persecution”.

The Daily Express entrance web page on Tuesday featured a strong message from one of many survivors of the atrocity, Eva Clarke, aged 80, who was born to her skeletal mom Anka in a focus camp and who had 15 members of her household murdered by the Nazis.

Karen Pollock CBE, chief government, Holocaust Educational Trust, mentioned the BBC’s omission of mentioning Jews within the broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day was “especially hurtful, disrespectful and wrong”.

He advised the Daily Express: “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.

“Any try and dilute the Holocaust, strip it of its Jewish specificity, or examine it to modern occasions is unacceptable on any day. On Holocaust Memorial Day, it’s particularly hurtful, disrespectful and mistaken.”

Danny Cohen, former BBC Director of Television, said it was a “new low level” for the national broadcaster. He said: “It is unquestionably the naked minimal to anticipate the BBC to accurately establish that it was six million Jews killed through 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 shall be very painful to many within the Jewish neighborhood and can reinforce their view that the BBC is insensitive to the issues of British Jews.”

Lord Pickles, co-chair of UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, former UK Special Envoy for post-Holocaust Issues and former chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, said: “This is an unambiguous instance of Holocaust distortion, which is a type of denial.

“This kind of obfuscation was common during the Soviet control of parts of Europe. For the BBC to use it today is shocking. They should be fighting Antisemitism, not aiding it.”

A spokesperson for the BBC mentioned: “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.”