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Old October 28th, 2008 #6
alex revision
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Culinary tv program featuring Hitler’s 'favourite meal' will not be aired

Original article: www.ejpress.org/article/31447

27/Oct/2008


BRUSSELS (EJP)---A tv station in Belgium has decided not to air on Tuesday a controversial culinary program which was due to feature “Adolf Hitler’s favourite meal."

The Jewish community and former deportees groups had reacted with dismay at the VRT Flemish public television program which, they said, was turning Hitler into a banal figure.

In the program called "Plat préféré" (Favorite Dish), a professional cook brings up the favourite meal of a personality. Among the figures already presented were Jacques Brel, Salvador Dali and Freddy Mercury. This time, the cook was due to go to Hitler's haunts in Bavaria, southern Germany, to prepare 'trout with butter sauce' which is said to be one of the Nazi dictator’s favorite meals.

A Jewish magazine in Antwerp and CCOJB, the umbrella group of Jewish organizations in Belgium, denounced the program. "It is worrying to see that Hitler is turned into a banal figure, especially for the younger generation," Michael Freilich, chief editor of Joods Actueel magazine, said.

In a reaction last week, the tv station explained it was not its intention “to make Hitler more humane but rather to put him in the right context." VRT had “apologised in advance” if some people felt shocked by the program's contents.

The station has decided instead to feature Greek opera singer Maria Callas.

According to a communiqué issued on Monday, "the VRT management defends the program’s content but prefers to cancel the airing because of the controversy around it," adding that the program clearly "shows that Jeroen Meus (the cook) has a dislike for Adolf Hitler and Nazism”.