Holocaust survivor slams ABC as ‘a disgrace’ as world media descend on Auschwitz
Eddy Boas says the ABC’s decision to not be among 78 TV networks to send journalists to Poland for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was ‘a disgrace’.
Australia’s ABC television has found itself an international outlier, with nearly all major television networks around the world converging on Poland to cover the 80th commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Organisers say 900 media were accredited from more than 1200 applications for the event, prompting Polish authorities to impose an early cut-off time for all representatives to be in place at the site of one of World War II’s most notorious and evil death camps more than six hours before the 4pm local time start.
Seventy eight global television networks from all points of the world including Japan, Korea, the United States, France, Germany, Canada and Britain, had to regularly rotate through 30 live positions overlooking the Birkenau camp where King Charles and other European royals and world leaders gained access to the huge tented entrance to the death camp, enveloping the railway tracks and freight wagon central to the two-hour commemoration.
Horrific accounts
The 56 Holocaust survivors and their assistants were kept warm inside the huge tent, bathed in a red light as three of their colleagues gave highly emotional accounts of their horrific time in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
The ABC has been criticised for not attending the commemoration in person.
Other Australian media outlets, Channel Seven, Nine, and Sky Australia as well as press journalists from The Australian, News Corp Australia, the Financial Review and other Nine Entertainment mastheads were in attendance.
The ABC issued a statement saying “the ABC is covering the Auschwitz commemoration across a range of platforms using local and provided coverage”.
Auschwitz-Birkenau communications director Pawel Sawicki said this year’s commemoration was the biggest in the museum’s history.
“The media from the main press agencies, the big televisions the radio stations: it’s really the world of journalists here. The world is represented by all the media here,’’ he said.
‘It’s a worldwide event’: Eddy Boas
Childhood Holocaust survivor Eddy Boas says the ABC’s decision to not send journalists to Poland for commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was “a disgrace”.
Mr Boas, who turned 85 on Monday, was just four years old when his two-year imprisonment at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp began alongside his mother, father and brother.
He said the national broadcaster’s failure to commit any on-the-ground resources to its coverage of the commemoration was particularly disappointing, given the recent spate of antiSemitic attacks in Australia.
“The ABC is a government-owned radio and TV network … and yet they largely ignore the Jewish population – except those Jewish people on their side, which is only a handful of them,” Mr Boas said. “Absolutely someone from the ABC should be there (for the commemoration). It’s a worldwide event. Some countries have sent prime ministers or leaders of their country.
“The fact the ABC hasn’t sent anyone there is a disgrace. I’ve given up on the ABC.”
It’s likely the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will be the last such commemoration attended by survivors of the concentration camp, most of whom are in their late 80s and 90s.
Australia’s main free-to-air TV networks, Seven and Nine, travelled to Poland, as did Sky News Australia, and print and digital journalists from News Corp (publisher of The Australian) and Nine. But no Australian crews from the ABC and SBS were in attendance, despite the fact that in the ABC’s case, it has multiple journalists stationed in Europe.
At 7.15pm, several hours after The Australian approached the ABC for comment, a spokesman confirmed it had not sent any of its Europe-based journalists to the event.
“The ABC is covering the Auschwitz commemoration service across a range of platforms using local and provided coverage,” he said.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive manager Joel Burnie said the ABC’s failure to send a TV crew to Poland was a “stark reflection of its broader lack of commitment to addressing the gravity of anti-Semitism in Australia. This neglect, coupled with their often one-sided, anti-Israel coverage, reveals a troubling tendency to marginalise critical issues impacting the Australian Jewish community.”
After Mr Boas’s father died in 1948, his mother, originally from Holland, decided to bring her three children to Australia.
“I came here when I was 14 in 1954. We came with no money, no nothing and Australia has been good to me. I would do anything for Australia,” he said.
But he expressed deep sadness at the levels of anti-Semitism in the country he loves. “Unfortunately what’s been happening over the past 15 months should never have happened at all,” he said.
“Anti-Semitism has always been in Australia, simmering under the blankets; the blanket was blown up on October 7, 2023.
“It reminds me a lot of what happened during the Holocaust. They had a similar situation in Holland … In 1939, the population turned against Jews. Jews had lived peacefully. What is happening here in Australia is a total follow up of what happened in 1939.
“I don’t think the federal government has made any effort whatsoever. They’re playing politics,” he said, adding that NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns’s efforts to combat the problem were commendable.
‘Listening to survivors’
Mr Sawicki said interest in the commemoration kept growing exponentially as the numbers of survivors declines.
“This is the last round numbered anniversary which will have a visible presence of survivors. Look at the numbers. For the 60th anniversary we had over 1700, for the 75th there were 200, for today’s 80th there are just over 50 here to listen to their voices.’’
He added: “It’s important that the heads of states are here, but they are listening to survivors and that’s very important.’’
Rianne Oosterom from the Dutch newspaper Trouw said the coverage of the Holocaust was critical because ‘’it’s a really special moment. It is 80 years on and it symbolises the shift in remembrance because the survivors are dying. The next big occasion they won’t be here.”
Ms Oosterom said the significance of Auschwitz-Birkenau lives on “even though the memory of the Holocaust has never been so politicised”.
‘Never again’
“The phrase ‘never again’ has been referred to both the Palestinian cause and to the plight of Jews,” she said.
The Netherlands has also had a spate of anti-Semitic attacks including a violent clash last November between football supporters of Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League.
Jonathan Farrogia, from Flash Productions based in Malta, said his company had produced a special documentary “Step By Step to Auschwitz” so that young Maltese students could understand the Holocaust.
“These days there are many people who don’t really know what happened and it’s important that this young generation get a real understanding of the atrocities that were committed,’’ he said.
Anja Intihar from the Slovenian daily Delo said the Holocaust was an important story in Slovenia because its a topic that still divides her country today.
“We didn’t have reconciliation after WWII, unlike the Germans and so everything around the victims and the Nazis is still part of a divided society,’’ she said.
“Politicians use WWII to divide people from the left and on the right. That’s why it’s extremely important that we talk about Auschwitz and what was really going on.”
‘Deeply moving’: Wong
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the commemoration was “a deeply moving experience”.
“The words of the Holocaust survivors will stay with me, always,” Senator Wong said.
“I hope their message is heard around the world.”
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