October 17, 2015
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has criticised journalist Paul Bongiorno for equating former Prime Minister’s Tony Abbot’s dislike of the art collection in Parliament House with Hitler’s Nazi regime. The comments were made on ABC Radio’s Mornings with Linda Mottram. After reminding listeners that Tony Abbot once described the art collection in Parliament House as “avant-garde crap”, Bongiorno said, “Now those of you that have an eye to history, and the history of art discussion and polemics over the years, might remember that the, um, for example, the, eh, Nazis in Nazi Germany outlawed anything that was modern art or impressionistic. The only art that was, you know, politically correct in those times was what they call photo-realism.”
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“It has become far too frequent and common to use the Holocaust for sloganeering and to attack people’s views. There is no place for it in our civil discourse. No Australian Prime Minister, current or former, should ever be compared to Hitler or to his regime and such conduct does an enormous disservice to history and is an insult to the memory of the six million Jewish victims, millions of other victims, Holocaust survivors and their families. The ADC has consistently denounced the trivialisation and misappropriation of the Holocaust by public figures and has spoken out against the employment of such inflammatory equations. While Paul Bongiorno is entitled to disagree with Tony Abbott’s taste in art, it is outrageous to draw any links to Hitler’s regime and to its evil actions. Suggesting that Mr Abbot’s description and attitude towards the art collection in Parliament House is something akin to Hitler’s Germany is historically inaccurate and offensive. Anyone familiar with that period would be acutely aware that the Third Reich publicly burned art and books, confiscated and plundered cultural items and murdered authors, musicians and intellectuals. By drawing this highly inappropriate comparison, Paul Bongiorno was cheapening a debate that can be conducted in a thoughtful way. Such outrageous and ignorant remarks only further compound the gross diminishing of the Holocaust, and we urge Paul Bongiorno to refrain from using such hurtful analogies in the future.”
For more information, please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272-5677