Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Baddiel death threat fears over Beeb film
Holocaust denier probe ‘to spark big backlash’
DAVID Baddiel says he fears for his life after taking on Holocaust deniers in a new BBC documentary.
The Jewish broadcaster meets fanatics who claim the atrocity is a hoax, as he looks at how their beliefs have evolved in the years since the Second World War.
And he tells how their extremism can turn violent – and even murderous.
He said: “Someone was killed. A security guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington was killed by an 88-year-old man.
“The guard was trying to help him inside but then the old man just shot him. He was a Holocaust denier. It’s so extraordinary. He was so furious that there was a museum to the Holocaust.”
Host David, 55, revealed he has consulted security experts to prepare for when the show goes out later this month. He said: “This programme will certainly lead to a lot of online abuse. One can only hope it won’t lead to anyone threatening me in real life. The programme is an exploratory essay about where we are – it doesn’t offer actual answers. I very much hope that no one kills me as a result of it.”
In the show, David – whose grandparents fled from the Nazis in 1939 – travels to former Nazi death camps and to meet a survivor.
He also meets a Holocaust denier who lives in Ireland and has 7,000 online followers.
David said: “I was very angry at bits of that interview and very exhausted after talking to him for a long time, with him saying unbelievably offensive things. I was like, ‘What the f*** am I doing here?’.” But he was driven to explore the issue because it is “a key battleground in the fight between truth and lies”.
Confronting Holocaust Denial With David Baddiel, BBC2, later this month.
ON HOLOCAUST DENIERS