August 12, 2015
Media Coverage:
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has denounced the comments made by Dr Ric Gordon on Channel Nine’s The Today Show suggesting Australians should eat less just like people did in concentration camps. When asked by host Karl Stefanovic what people should eat, Dr Gordon replied, “ There were no overweight people in the concentration camps. Now they weren’t exercising a lot, they just weren’t eating. Now I’m not going any further with that except to say that what you put in your mouth ends up on your hips. Very important.”
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
I am outraged and alarmed. It’s clear that we have reached a new low in the abuse and perversion of the Holocaust. This distasteful and shockingly insensitive concentration camp analogy, used by Dr Ric Gordon to promote healthier eating among Australians, reveals a troubling and basic ignorance about the horrific facts and crimes of the Holocaust. To employ the unspeakable tragedy of the death camps, where millions of people starved to death and were tortured and murdered in the gas chambers, as a way to bring attention to the importance of weight loss ,trivializes and debases the memory of the Holocaust and diminishes the evil deeds of the Nazis. It is also a horrible insult and slap in the face to the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis and those who survived the atrocities. We call on Dr Gordon to immediately apologise, and would urge the Today Show to invite a Holocaust survivor to educate current and future generations about the unimaginable conditions and suffering they underwent at the hands of the Third Reich. There is simply no place in our public discourse for such offensive equations, and people in the media must refrain from using such inappropriate and hurtful comparisons in the future.”
For more information, please contact Dr. Dvir Abramovich on, 9272-5677