American ‘holocaust’ Film Draws Anti-semitic Comments in Holland

The second and third parts of the NBC-TV film. “Holocaust,” screened on Dutch television over the weekend, drew even more negative responses than the first part, broadcast last week, and blatantly anti-Semitic comments from some of the 1000 viewers who telephoned the Tros broadcasting organization which is televising the film. This led a panel of experts who took some of the calls to conclude that anti-Semitism exists in Holland, even among elementary school children.

Many callers repeated the complaint expressed after the initial episode that too much attention was given the persecution of Jews and none to the Gypsies, homosexuals and other minorities who also perished in Nazi death camps. Others suggested that the series would cause great suffering among the children of Dutch Nazis. Some viewers said the Americans had caused as much suffering as the Nazis when they dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

Much criticism was directed against the Jewish victims for allowing themselves to be led passively like sheep to the slaughterhouse and some callers suggested that if the Jews had fought back they would have gained the respect of the Nazis. A native of Surinam, formerly Dutch Guiana, who is now a citizen of Holland, delivered an anti-Semitic tirade. He denounced Jews as having always been the worst exploiters and slave traders in the world and claimed that in World War 11 they had only received their just desserts.

The panel of experts included psychologists to deal with calls from persons who were emotionally upset by the broadcast. Contrary to expectations, there were very few such callers. One viewer wanted to know why Jews who suffered from anti-Semitism in Holland did not settle in Israel.

The second and third episodes of the four-part series were screened Saturday night and Sunday night. The film was followed by a documentary that contained interviews with several Dutch Jewish resistance fighters, with author Elie Wiesel and with Simon Wiesenthal, head of the war crimes documentation center in Vienna. Meanwhile the Tros studios are under heavy guard. People can enter only after showing an official pass.