US Holocaust survivors’ foundation calls Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech ‘morally indefensible’

The Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA has attacked The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer for what it describes as his “morally indefensible” Oscar acceptance speech on Sunday.

In an open letter published on the organisation’s website, the foundation’s chairman David Schaecter, wrote: “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 a half million children, who were murdered solely because of their Jewish identity.”

Schaecter added: “You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticise Israel. If the creation, existence, and survival of the State of Israel as a Jewish state equates to ‘occupation’ in your mind, then you obviously learned nothing from your movie.”

Glazer, along with film producer James Wilson, won the best international film Academy Award for The Zone of Interest, about the daily life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig. In his speech, Glazer said that he and Wilson “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 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza.”

On Monday the Anti-Defamation League posted a message on social media attacking Glazer’s comments as “reprehensible”, saying: “Israel is not hijacking Judaism or the Holocaust by defending itself against genocidal terrorists. Glazer’s comments at the #Oscars are both factually incorrect & morally reprehensible. They minimise the Shoah & excuse terrorism of the most heinous kind.”

Glazer has also received widespread support for his comments, including from Israeli military veterans’ organisation Breaking the Silence, which posted a statement on social media saying “[Glazer] took an unequivocal stance against the cynical utilisation of Judaism and the Holocaust in the name of justifying the occupation … we refuse to accept the ease with which the blood and lives of civilians is used as a justification for political ideologies, or as a bargaining chip. Empathy is not a zero-sum game.”