Nbc Says Its Affiliates Have Spurned Right Wing Pressure to Keep ‘holocaust’ off the Air

The National Broadcasting Company declared yesterday that despite pressure on local television stations from ultra-right wing and anti-Semitic groups, 210 of the network’s affiliates will be showing the film “Holocaust” April 16-19. The usual average for a major network presentation is 207 affiliates, an NBC spokesman said.

The spokesman also noted that the nine-and-a half-hour program is fully subscribed to for the four nights with 40 sponsors. The NBC announcement came during a press conference at the Plaza Hotel at which members of the cast and others involved in the production, including the writer of the script, Gerald Green, participated.

The Rev. William L. Weiler, executive director of the Office of Christian-Jewish Relations of the National Council of Churches of Christ, said that it was as important for Christians as for Jews to view the film since “only as the children of every generation know the sad facts of their past can they work and plan for a sane future in a world which provides justice for all people.”

He noted that the fact that American Nazis march in Skokie and in St. Louis in full uniform “shows us that there are people today who will do all they can to see that Hitler’s ‘final solution’ will yet be carried out.” He said Christians should join Jews in saying, as they view the TV program, “never again.”

NETWORK PRAISED FOR PRESENTING FILM

Weiler had earlier joined Dr. Eugene J. Fisher, of the Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations of

The three religious leaders said that “the presentation is very much in the public interest as this is a story which every American needs to know and understand.” They urged NBC to ignore threats of boycotts and picketings because the small anti-Semitic organizations which made those threats are “in no way representative of the Christians of America.”

They urged Christians and Jews in every community to view the film all four nights and then meet together to discuss it “in the anticipation of creating improved Christian-Jewish understanding in our nation.”

Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who served as a consultant on the production of “Holocaust,” told the press conference that he views the television presentation as a “moral watershed presentation” in the life of the United States. He noted that although there have been many important books and scholarly works on the Holocaust, the television program will have more of an impact than all of these works put together because it will reach so many millions of people in the US. and abroad.

ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS DURING FILMING

Members of the cast stressed that they felt they were participating in something more than an ordinary film. Fritz Weaver, who plays Dr. Josef Weiss, head of the Jewish family around which the film evolves, said he began to feel so much like a Jew that he responded as he believes a Jew would on current issues facing Israel.

Members of the production company said that while shooting the film in Austria they tried to keep a “low profile” to prevent any incidents by such groups as the Baader-Meinhof gang from West Germany or the Palestine Liberation Organization. At the same time they noted an under-current of anti-Semitism from the local population. Swastikas were painted on their film sets and anti-Semitic epithets were hurled at them on occasions. However, Robert Berger, the film’s producer, noted that while anti-Semitism exists in Austria, it is not confined to there and is present in other countries, including the United States.