As the national organisation representing and supporting Holocaust refugees and survivors, The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) is outraged to hear that Channel 4 intends to screen the episode of Art Trouble in which an audience will debate whether to destroy a painting by Adolf Hitler. We call on Channel 4 to immediately withdraw this broadcast.
The crass insensitivity of the concept is such that the idea should have been outright rejected in the first place, but for a public broadcaster with a national platform to schedule such a programme is wholly offensive to those who suffered under the Nazis and their families.
Our staff deal daily with traumatised people as well as their families whose lives have been destroyed. Instead of chasing cheap ratings, Channel 4 should consider the impact such a programme might have.
Moreover, at a time of rising antisemitism and growing distortion of the Holocaust, Channel 4 is recklessly popularising a genocidal despot and, in so doing, trivialising the greatest crime and tragedy in modern history.
If Channel 4 wishes to create informative and thought-provoking content about the moral questions raised by the Holocaust, we would be happy to work with them. But this proposed programme is the opposite of that. it should also be aware that one of the ways in which the Nazis oppressed those they deemed undesirable was by suppressing their cultures, including by designating the work of certain artists as degenerate. The broadcaster should pull this programme and unreservedly apologise.
Michael Newman, Chief Executive
