Newspaper Page Text
Holocaust film draws flack
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In a scene from NBC—TV movie, “Holocaust,’' an anguished Inga Helms Weiss (Meryl Streep) is restrained
from joining her artist husband, Karl (James Woods), who reaches out to her from the rear of a truck as he is
being transported to the dreaded “little fortress” of Theresienstadt— a concentration camp.
NEW YORK, (JT A) —
“Holocaust," a 9 !6 hour television
dramatization to be aired by NBC
in four parts beginning Arpil 16,
has come under Are from two
groups for widely different
reasons.
A group calling itself the
Christian Defense League (CDL)
has labeled the original drama,
written by Gerald Green, “Zionist
propaganda” aimed at instilling “a
guilt complex in American gentiles
for the so-called “poor persecuted
Jews.’"
In addition, several Midwest
stations affiliated with NBC have
demanded that certain scenes be
deleted. The affiliates, which
previewed the film, objected to one
scene showing Jewish women
being forced to disrobe before
being led to the gas chambers and
another in which elderly women
are led to their death. NBC has
agreed to delete these scenes.
The CDL issued a statement
demanding that NBC drop the
entire production. It said, “Over
300,000 gentiles died fighting for
Jewish rights. The Americans
sided with the Jews during World
War If and certainly cpuldn’t be
considered enemies, of the Jewish
people. Yet American gentiles are
subjected to a constant barrage of
movies from Hollywood which
have as their main aim propaganda
to instill a guilt complex in
•American gentiles...”
Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum,
director of the inter-religious
affairs department of the
American Jewish Committee, who
The April 14 issue of The
Southern Israelite will include «
special 14-page supplement on
the Holocaust to coincide with
the four-part, nine-hour NBC
television special on the
Holocaust to be telecast April
16-19 on WSB-TV, Channel 2.
The supplement will contain
articles and photos dealing with
the Holocaust, as well as the
television special
served as a consultant to NBC in
the production of “Holocaust,"
told the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency that the affiliates objected
to a five-second segment of the
disrobing scene which shows
frontal nudity with pubic hair
visible. They felt this went far
beyond the boundaries of good
taste acceptable to television
See Holocaust, Page 26.
Jewish (jroup leaders barred
Prison program in jeopardy?
by Vida Goldgar
Others are trying to get out of
prison. Arlene Peck is trying to get
in. Or back in, to be more accurate.
Barred “indefinitely" earlier this
month from attending the regular
Wednesday night Jewish
discussion group she has led for the
past five years for inmates at the
U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta. Mrs.
Peck has enlisted widespread
support in and out of the Jewish
^community (and in and out of the
penitentiary) in her efforts to get
reinstated. The discussion group is
sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish
Education.
The controversy erupted early
this month when Mrs. Peck invited
State Sen. Julian Bond, his aide,
and an off-duty television news
reporter to join her and other
regular volunteers for the
Wednesday night discussion.
Penitentiary officials refused
admission to Bond, his aide and
the reporter, claiming Mrs. Peck
had violated regulations by, not
giving written notice in advance
that Bond was coming. The reason
given was that Bond posed a
security risk.
Admitting that she had not
submitted the names in writing,
Mrs. Peck insists that she received
verbal permission by telephone, a
procedure she says she often
followed in the past.
A prison spokesman, William
Noonan, executive assistant to
warden Jack Hanberry, disagrees.
Noonan told The Southern
Israelite Mrs. Peck called when
neither of the regular chaplains
was availsble and gave the message
to an assistant chaplain who was
not authorized to grant
permission. Mrs. Peck denies this.
Noonan's explanation of the
refusal to admit Sen. Bond was
that because Bond is a celebrity,
word of his presence would
circulate among prisoners not part
of the regular Jewish Discussion
Group who would want to crowd
into the small area. This situation
could be “potentially explosive in a
prison setting,” Noonan said, and
would require extra security “not
available on such short notice.”
Claiming discrimination, both
against Bond and the Jewish
Discussion Group, Mrs. Peck
objected strongly at the time to the
prisons refusal to admit Bond and
the others. A memo from the duty
officer, quoted by Noonan, says he
emphatically told Mrs. Peck she
and the regular visitors could
come in without Bond, his aide and
the reporter (who was present as a
private citizen but was felt by
•officials to be a minor security risk
as well). This alternative was
unacceptable to the group and they
left.
Leon Spotts, director of the
sponsoring Bureau of Jewish
Education, received word from the
penitentiary the next day that Mrs.
Peck had been barred indefinitely,
along with Andy Andreovich and
Timi Silver, both regular
volunteers who were present at the
confrontation.
Andreovich this week said he
telephoned assistant warden Dick
Witkowski after the incident.
According to Andreovich,
See Prison, Page 26.