BBC is facing furious backlash after omitting the word 'Jewish' from promotional material for film telling the story of WWII hero Sir Nicholas Winton who saved kindertransport children from the Nazis
- BBC didn't say most children saved by kindertransport were Jewish in film promo
The BBC is facing furious backlash after omitting the word 'Jewish' from promotional material for a film starring Sir Anthony Hopkins about WWII hero Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved children from the Nazis with the kindertransport scheme.
The new film, One Life, tells the story of Sir Nicholas' efforts to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from the expanding Nazi invasion across Europe.
However, the word 'Jewish' was not featured on the website of film co-producer BBC Film in its information page, saying only that Sir Nicholas saved '669 children', leading to claims that Jews were being 'written out of history'.
Co-producers See-Saw Films and distributors Warner Bros used the same wording on their websites.
HMV and several cinemas in the UK, including the Peckhamplex in London, posted on Twitter, formerly X, a promotion for the film which described it as the story of a man 'who helped save Central European children from the Nazis'.
Sir Nicholas Winton receiving an Order of White Lion in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2014
Sir Anthony Hopkins pictured playing Sir Nicholas in the film which tells the story of the WW2 hero's efforts to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis
Sir Nicholas Winton appearing on That's Life in 1988, which was hosted by Dame Esther Rantzen, who surprised by the audience of grown-up children he rescued from Czechoslovakia during the Second World War
Since the claims of the erasure of Jewish identity, the film's promotional material has been edited to describe the rescued children as primarily Jewish, The Telegraph reports.
Commenting on the film's promotional material on X, director of public affairs at the Board of Jewish Deputies Daniel Sugarman said: 'This is how the film is described on their website. No mention of Jews at all.
'That's 2024 for you. Half the time we're experiencing Holocaust inversion, the other half we're getting written out of our own history.'
HMV have apologised on X, saying: 'We understand how this choice of wording could be interpreted and we have updated it to say that Sir Nicholas Winton rescued 669 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi-occupation.'
Warner Bros and the BBC have also updated the wording on their websites to describe the children as 'predominantly Jewish'.
In the film, Sir Anthony plays an older Sir Nicholas recreating a moment on TV show That's Life, hosted by Dame Esther Rantzen, when he was surprised by the audience of grown-up children he rescued from Czechoslovakia during the Second World War.
Director of public affairs at the Board of Jewish Deputies Daniel Sugarman said: 'This is how the film is described on their website. No mention of Jews at all'
Nicholas Winton and his wife in Prague, the capital of then-Czechoslovakia, in 1991
Sir Nicholas wrote a list of vulnerable children the day before the nation was annexed by Hitler's Nazi Germany and arranged to transport them to Britain and provide them safe homes
Sir Nicholas wrote a list of vulnerable children the day before the nation was annexed by Hitler's Nazi Germany and arranged to transport them to Britain and provide them safe homes.
His heroic efforts were not widely known until Dame Esther brought him onto That's Life.
She asked members of the audience to stand if their lives were saved by Sir Nicholas, and a huge section of the audience rose to their feet.
Sir Nicholas died in 2015 aged 106.
The BBC, Warner Bros and See Saw films have been contacted for comment but one was not immediately available.
