Tuesday, January 27, marked 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.
It is a day when the world remembers the genocide of six million Jewish people – men, women, and children – murdered by the Nazi regime and their collaborators.
The BBC covered the annual day of remembrance, but at least four news presenters neglected to mention that the six million murdered victims referred to were Jewish and targeted because of that reality.
The report on BBC Breakfast said the day was “for remembering the six million people murdered by the Nazi regime over 80 years ago” without specifying that the deaths targeted were Jewish victims.
The word “Jews” was also erased from the BBC Radio 4 report on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Of course, this is merely the latest of the British broadcaster’s breach of its responsibility to speak truth to both the Jewish people and the British populace. Just this summer, after Bob Vylan’s performance at a festival in Glastonbury, the BBC aired the singer leading the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF”.
“This is a time of national shame,” Sir Ephraim Mirvis wrote on X, “The airing of vile Jew-hatred at Glastonbury and the BBC’s belated and mishandled response, brings confidence in our national broadcaster’s ability to treat antisemitism seriously to a new low.”
“It should trouble all decent people that now, one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary, for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is, but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it. Toxic Jew-hatred is a threat to our entire society.”
Although the BBC was forced to apologise after wrongly omitting “Jewish people” from its Holocaust Memorial Day reporting, it was only because the error sparked backlash from furious listeners – with many correctly pointing out that the six million figure relates specifically to the Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust. Somehow that point escaped the attention of the broadcaster, even as the streets of London were lit up in remembrance of the suffering of Jews at the hands of Nazism.
The BBC said in a statement: “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. We should have referred to ‘six million Jewish people’ and we will be issuing a correction on our website.” The broadcaster described Tuesday’s omission as “hurtful, disrespectful, and wrong.”
Jewish groups demanded an apology for the blunder.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote on X: “Even on Holocaust Memorial Day, the BBC cannot bring itself to properly address antisemitism.
“It is no wonder that an overwhelming 92 per cent of British Jews rate the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish interest as unfavourable. This is absolutely disgraceful broadcasting. @BBC, we demand an explanation for how this could have happened.”
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children…Any attempt to dilute the Holocaust, strip it of its Jewish specificity, or compare it to contemporary events is unacceptable on any day. On Holocaust Memorial Day, it is especially hurtful, disrespectful and wrong.”
And the BBC’s own former director of television Danny Cohen, said the mistake, especially on Holocaust Remembrance Day, “marks a new low…” for the broadcaster. He said the mishap will surely “reinforce the view that the BBC is insensitive to the concerns of British Jews.”
Yet, the BBC’s poor news coverage has not been limited to its issues with anti-Semitism. President Donald Trump is currently seeking up to $5 billion in damages from the BBC in his planned lawsuit over the public broadcaster’s “doctored” edits of his speech on January 6th, which implied he called for violent action – an insurrection.
The BBC has since issued another formal apology – this time to the president of the United States.
It should be noted that British taxpayers fund the BBC primarily through the compulsory annual TV license fee, which generated £3.66 billion ($US 5.04 billion) in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
The issue is important – it can happen again
While Holocaust Memorial Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, a theme of the day should be that genocides can happen again – with the world having already committed multiple atrocities in the years since World War II.
As the Holocaust threatened the very fabric of civilization, discrimination and persecution must not be tolerated to rend it further. Irrespective of its domicile, in the UK or elsewhere, prejudice and the language of hatred must be challenged by every ear.
At a time of rising anti-Semitism, this is a moment to remain united against the ignorance-driven scourge of Jew hatred. The BBC failed once more to fulfil its obligation to British society, to stand with the people – Jewish or otherwise – against this racism.
This writer’s concern is the discernible pattern evinced through repeated offences committed by this organisation — specifically against the Jewish people. What does this say?
Post Script: There is no shortage of commentary on antisemitism. But there is a shortage of clarity. Too many voices speak about the issue as if it were abstract, complicated, or best left for academic panels. Rabbi Dov Fischer refused to play that game – from his works one can see that he always viewed Jewish dignity as not something to be negotiated, but rather lived, and firmly held without justification.
His voice will be missed.
Dr. Wolf is director of The Fulcrum Institute, a new organization of current and former scholars, which engages in research and commentary, focusing on political and cultural issues on both sides of the Atlantic. Our interest is in American foreign policy as it relates to the economic and foreign policies of the NATO countries, the SCO, the BRICS+ nation-states and the Middle East.
After service in the USAF (Lt.Col.-Intel) Dr. Wolf obtained a PhD-philosophy (University of Wales), MA-philosophy (University of S. Africa), MTh-philosophical theology (Texas Christian University-Brite Div.). He taught philosophy and humanities in the US and S. Africa before retiring from university.
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I have been horrified for some time now, watching the undisguised hatred of the Jewish people unfold on podcasts in the USA such as the disgraceful Candace Owens and the unconscionable Tucker Carlson. What few seem to have noticed is that their hatred of Jews, now openly expressed, is only matched by their praise of Islam. Incredible.
I haven’t watched the BBC News for a long time but I am not surprised to learn of their double-speak on Holocaust Memorial Day. Islam aside, their tendency has been, for along time now, to present religious faith negatively. And, it seems, they are anti-Jewish – an affliction that I have tried, but failed, to comprehend.
Yes, there were others who were targeted for the gas chambers – and even one well-known Jewish journalist who admitted this, omitted “Christians” from her list. Still, the overwhelming number of people persecuted and sent to the gas chambers were Jews. No question about that.
One or two commentators have blamed “early Christian theology” for making Christians blame “the Jews” for the death of Christ. But even a cursory reading of the New Testament reveals that the first leading Christians were Jews, as was Christ Himself, and the ordinary Jewish people at the time of Christ flocked to hear his preaching with hopes of seeing a miracle. The Jews who sought the death of Jesus were the religious leaders, not the majority of the Jews, so it is historically inaccurate to blame “the Jews” anyway – not that there is blame, in fact, but that would take us to another level of theological debate so I won’t go there in this short post except to say that – in God’s plan of salvation – Christ embraced His death; he was not murdered but put to death by the Roman State, using the legitimate means (death penalty) at the time. So, although the Jewish leaders, exercising their free will, sought the death penalty, that does not justify blaming “the Jews” for the crucifixion.
Thanks for the above very good article – if only we could celebrate the foreseeable end of the BBC, but that really is an “if only”.
Strange, BBC almost right for the wrong reasons. No one needs to be antisemitic to know that the Holocaust had victims who weren’t Jewish and these traditionally don’t generally get the same degree of sympathy.
Frankly (sorry I know this offends many people) Holocaust Commemorations, like Poppys, mean very little to those born after the 1950s and ramming remembrance down the throats of those who have not experienced a World War and who would probably refuse to fight in one isn’t helpful.
As for ths planned London Holocaust Memorial 80 years after an event that never took place on mainland UK, this is just virtue signalling of the worst kind – especially if increasingly those in authority, Islamics and the chattering classes somehow hold British Jews (who rightly do have Holocaust traumas) somehow responsible for the Gaza/Palestinian situation in the Middle East.
The Holocaust remembrance didn’t really surface until 30 years after the war. I never recall any of my family talking of the Holocaust or anyone else for that matter in the 50s and 60s and I wasn’t taught anything about it at secondary school in the sixties. Now I believe every single school in Britain has to study this topic. Suspect it was AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) that promoted the Holocaust industrial complex and from there to Europe.
In the 60s and 60s it was still the prevailing parental and educational view that some things were age inappropriate for children, accordingly certain topics were just not discussed.
By the 70s the Holocaust was dealt with in history lessons, but as a fact of WW2 and not a quasi-religious cause for those whose parents and grandparents weren’t perpetrators or victims to be required to feel morally obliged to demonstrate either guilt or the need for unending revenge.
It’s difficult for me to comprehend how this ‘educational necessity’ can be sustained in the C21st by Marxist leaning teachers who far prefer Islam, Green and Woke to Jews. Once all the remaining Holocaust survivers are gone, it will be possible to rewrite history in the way the BBC favours and future generations manipulated.
I meant to also express my shock and disappointment in JD Vance, who did the very same thing – he issued a statement for Holocaust Memorial Day which omitted all mention of the Jews. He appears to be a close friend of the (awful) Tucker Carlson so has perhaps been influenced by him, which, in my judgement, rules him out as a future President of the USA. I don’t have a vote, of course, but if I did, he’d have just lost it.
Hope you don’t mind me asking but why is Tucker Carlson awful?