Statement on ‘Jimmy Carr Destroys Art’ Channel 4 show

There is nothing entertaining or laughable about Hitler or the murder of 6 million Jews, and the persecution of millions more. This episode of the television series, Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, is making Hitler a topic of light entertainment – this is deeply inappropriate, and at a time of increasing Holocaust distortion, dangerously trivialising. The question of how far art can be linked to its creators is an important one, but this programme is simply a stunt for shock value, and cannot excuse the trivialisation of the horrors of Nazism.

Choosing Jimmy Carr to front this episode is deliberately provocative and inflammatory given his history of using the murder of Roma and Sinti people by the Nazis and their collaborators for comedic gain.

Olivia Marks-Woldman OBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust