An Indian movie is being accused of misappropriating the Holocaust. The movie, 'Bawaal,' was directed by well-known Indian filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari. The film’s storyline, which is set in contemporary times, leads to scenes in which the protagonists enter a gas chamber in Auschwitz and are suffocated while wearing striped clothing. Hitler is used as a metaphor in the movie for human greed, with the main protagonist saying to his wife: “We’re all a little like Hitler, aren’t we?”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading human rights NGO dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, is urging Amazon Prime to remove the film due to what it calls "its outlandish abuse of the Nazi Holocaust as a plot device."
“Auschwitz is not a metaphor. It is the quintessential example of Man’s capacity for Evil,” charged SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
“By having the protagonist in this movie declare that ‘Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz,’ Nitesh Tiwari trivializes and demeans the memory of 6 million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler’s genocidal regime.”
“If the filmmaker’s goal was to gain PR for their movie by reportedly filming a fantasy sequence at the Nazi death camp, he has succeeded.”
“Amazon Prime should stop monetizing Bawaal by immediately removing this banal trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust,” Rabbi Cooper concluded.