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The Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation attacked Oscar-winning director Jonathan Glazer for refuting his "Jewishness" and claiming the genocide of 6 million Jews had been "hijacked" by the Israeli "occupation."
Glazer’s film "The Zone of Interest," about the life of the Nazi commandant of Auschwitz and his family next to the concentration camp, won two Oscars at the 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. As he accepted the award for Best International Feature, Glazer referenced the ongoing Israel-Gaza war and suggested both Israel and Hamas were guilty of the kind of "dehumanization" that led to the Holocaust.
"Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst … 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?" Glazer said.
Jonathan Glazer, winner of the Best International Feature Film award for "The Zone of Interest", poses in the press room during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood on March 10, 2024, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
The Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA president David Schaecter penned an open letter against Glazer on Monday for comparing Israel to Hamas and the Holocaust.
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"I watched in anguish Sunday night when I heard you use the platform of the Oscars ceremony to equate Hamas's maniacal brutality against innocent Israelis with Israel's difficult but necessary self-defense in the face of Hamas's ongoing barbarity. Your comments were factually inaccurate and morally indefensible," the 94-year-old Holocaust survivor wrote.
He explained, "The ‘occupation’ of which you speak has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Jewish people's existence and right to live in the land of Israel predates the Holocaust by hundreds of years. Today's political and geographic landscape is the direct result of wars started by past Arab leaders who refused to accept Jewish people as their neighbors in our historic homeland. Now that several Arab countries are making peace with Israel because security and prosperity are better for all people, Iran and its terrorist proxies started another war, abetted by too many, who, through naïveté or malice, blame ‘the occupation.’"
Jonathan Glazer referenced the Holocaust to condemn the alleged "dehumanization" of Gazans by Israel. (Photo by Rich Polk/Variety via Getty Images/Photo by Piotr Malecki)
Schaecter also called it "disgraceful" for Glazer, a Jewish man, to invoke the Holocaust to condemn Israel while winning for a film that took place at Auschwitz.
"Worse is that you chose to use the Holocaust to validate your personal opinion. You made a Holocaust movie and won an Oscar. And you are Jewish. Good for you. But it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for the six million Jews, including one and half million children, who were murdered solely because of their Jewish identity," Schaecter wrote.
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He continued, "And it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for those of us who personally saw the world stand silent as our mothers, father, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were murdered. We actually had nowhere to go - no possible place for refuge. No country would accept us even though world leaders knew full well that thousands of Jews were being murdered every day. There was no Jewish nation to which we could flee. You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel."
Glazer condemned both Hamas and Israel as guilty of "dehumanization." (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Schaecter was joined by 18 members of the Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA Executive Committee along with 24 other member organizations.
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Fox News' Jessica Sonkin contributed to this report.