Holocaust exaggerated: Gibson dad

From correspondents in New York
February 19, 2004

A WEEK before the United States release of Mel Gibson's controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ, the filmmaker's father has repeated claims the Holocaust was exaggerated.

Hutton Gibson's comments, made in a telephone interview with New York radio talk show host Steve Feuerstein, come at an awkward time for the actor-director who has been trying to deflect criticism from Jewish groups that his film might inflame anti-Semitic sentiment.

In his interview on WSNR radio's Speak Your Piece, to be broadcast on Monday, Hutton Gibson, argued that many European Jews counted as death camp victims of the Nazi regime had in fact fled to countries like Australia and the United States.

"It's all - maybe not all fiction - but most of it is," he said, adding that the gas chambers and crematoria at camps like Auschwitz would not have been capable of exterminating so many people.

"Do you know what it takes to get rid of a dead body? To cremate it?" he said. "It takes a litre of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million of them? They (the Germans) did not have the gas to do it. That's why they lost the war."

Gibson's father caused a furore last year when he made similar remarks in a New York Times article.

In a television interview with Diane Sawyer this week, Mel Gibson accused the Times of taking advantage of his father, and he warned Sawyer against broaching the subject again.

"He's my father. Gotta leave it alone Diane. Gotta leave it alone," Gibson said, while offering his own perspective on the Holocaust.

"Do I believe that there were concentration camps where defenceless and innocent Jews died cruelly under the Nazi regime? Of course I do; absolutely," he said. "It was an atrocity of monumental proportion."

During his lengthy radio interview, Hutton Gibson, 85, said Jews were out to create "one world religion and one world government" and outlined a conspiracy theory involving Jewish bankers, the US Federal Reserve and the Vatican, among others.

The Passion, which gets its US release on February 25, purports to be a faithful and graphic account of Christ's last 12 hours on earth.

Jewish leaders who have attended advance screenings have voiced concerns that its portrayal of the Jews' role in Christ's execution could stir up anti-Semitic feeling.

© The Australian

Mel Gibson's father says Holocaust mostly 'fiction'

Friday, February 20, 2004 at 15:00 JST

NEW YORK — Days before the U.S. release of Mel Gibson's film about the death of Jesus, which some critics say could fuel anti-Semitism, his father has told an interviewer that the Holocaust was mostly "fiction."
Steve Feuerstein — host of "Speak Your Piece!" — said he interviewed Hutton Gibson for a segment of his show to be broadcast Monday by the small Talkline Communications Network.

According to a transcript released by the network, Hutton Gibson said, "It's all — maybe not all fiction — but most of it is," when asked about his views on the Holocaust.

He added: "They claimed that there were 6.2 million Jews in Poland before the war and after the war there were 200,000, therefore Hitler must have killed 6 million of them. They simply got up and left. They were all over the Bronx and Brooklyn and Sydney and Los Angeles."

The interview comes at a sensitive time for Mel Gibson, whose epic "The Passion of the Christ" is due to open next Wednesday.

Some Jewish leaders say the movie could fuel anti-Semitism for its portrayal of Jews' role in the crucifixion, while conservative Christians have praised it as a moving depiction of Christ's death.

Gibson, who produced, directed and co-wrote the film, has said repeatedly that he is not anti-Semitic and that the project was a deeply personal expression of his own faith.

Hutton Gibson has an unpublished phone number at his home outside Houston and could not be reached for comment. Alan Nierob, a spokesman for Mel Gibson, declined to comment on the interview.

Hutton Gibson follows a tiny wing of traditionalist Catholicism that views the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council as a conspiracy between Jews and Masons to take over the church.

The elder Gibson has stirred controversy in previous interviews with remarks on the Holocaust and Judaism, but had kept quiet in the months leading up to the release of "The Passion."

In this latest interview, Gibson said Jews want to take over the world. He did not know why Jews would want to achieve that, but said "it's all about control. They're after one world religion and one world government."

Asked in media interviews whether he shares his father's views, Mel Gibson has said that he loves his father and will not speak against him.
Zev Brenner, owner of Talkline, which he calls a Jewish network, has been calling for a boycott of all of Mel Gibson's movies.

(Wire reports)

Fredrick Töben reminds readers he witnessed his own father's cremation,  at:

 Newsletter 197 Was my father a mass murderer?

and

 Newsletter 198 In honour of my family's good name