Neither the Spanish Embassy nor the State Department could confirm a published report here that, because of Arab protests, Spain’s state controlled television has indefinitely postponed showing the American-produced NBC-TV “Holocaust” series. The report said Arab nations wield unusual influence in Spain which depends on Arab oil supplies and Arab purchases of Spanish goods. Spain has never recognized Israel although it has increased official tolerance toward Jews and contacts with Israeli officials.
The report said that “the behind-the-scenes Madrid dispute over ‘Holocaust’ — which was bought by government television and dubbed into Spanish — began after American author Leon Uris ‘QB VII’ was shown in Madrid. ” This story is about a Jewish writer and a Polish doctor who conducted inhumane experiments in a World War II Nazi concentration camp and their confrontation in a British courtroom.
According to the report, Spanish officials said the program led to Arab diplomatic protests and they reportedly leveled the same charge against “Holocaust,” saying it was “fiction” that would arouse sympathy for Israel.
At the Spanish Embassy, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was told that the Embassy had no information on the matter but said that Arab diplomats do not have such influence in Spain as the report indicated. The State Department said that its understanding was that a decision on the showing had not yet been made.
The published report in the Washington Post said that Nazi and French officials sent thousands of Spaniards, mostly Republicans, Socialists and Communists who fled to France after the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, to the death camps and that an estimated 10,000 Spaniards perished in Buchenwald King Juan Carlos paid homage to Spanish victims of the Nazis during a visit to the camp.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
