Jonathan Glazer’s Israel-Hamas Oscars Comments Denounced as ‘Morally Indefensible’ by Holocaust Survivors
The Holocaust Survivor’s Foundation blasted “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer’s comments made Sunday night during the Oscars ceremony as “morally indefensible” in an open letter obtained Monday by TheWrap.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel,” foundation president David Schaecter wrote in the missive, which was signed by the 18 members of the foundation’s U.S. executive committee.
The 94-year-0ld Schaecter, who stated that he was the only one of his 105-member family to survive the Holocaust, wrote, “I watched in anguish Sunday when I heard you use the platform of the Oscars ceremony to equate Hamas’ maniacal brutality against innocent Israelis with Israel’s difficult but necessary self-defense in the face of ongoing barbarity.”
During his acceptance speech for Best International Feature Film, Glazer condemned the ongoing violence between Israel and Palestine that began with the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and continues five months later despite global calls for Israel to issue a cease-fire in Gaza.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” Glazer said in his speech. “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
Schaecter continued, “You made a Holocaust movie and you won an Oscar. And you are Jewish. Good for you. But it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for six million Jews, including one and a half million children, who were murdered solely because of their Jewish identity.”
“The Zone of Interest” is about Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Müller), as they live an idyllic life in a dream home next to the infamous concentration camp.
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