The publicly funded BBC was criticized for its multiple broadcasts on Tuesday, January 27th—Holocaust Remembrance Day—which erased the Jewish identity of the six million victims of the Holocaust.
A seven-minute report on BBC Breakfast and segments on Radio 4 referred only to “six million people” killed, without mentioning Jews or antisemitism. Later corrections described the victims as “mainly Jewish,” but at least four presenters initially failed to make the clarification.
The UK national broadcaster issued an apology, acknowledging the incorrect wording and promising corrections online. Holocaust educators called the omissions an “abuse of the memory” of victims. Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said failing to specify that the victims were Jewish was disrespectful and harmful, while Lord Eric Pickles described it as “Holocaust distortion.”
The incident comes amid a rising tide of antisemitic incidents in the UK and growing concern about the state of public awareness of the Holocaust.
