November 8, 2017 — New York
In a Huffington Post op-ed, AJC CEO David Harris criticized Larry David for his “vulgar banalization of the Holocaust” when opening the Saturday Night Live show over the weekend.
In his monologue, David “jokingly” imagined being born in Poland and contemplating dating a young woman he meets in a Nazi concentration camp.
“I was appalled by Larry David’s choice of material for his segment,” said Harris. “I withheld immediate comment, hoping in vain that he would quickly realize he had crossed a line and try to make amends for his stunning act of insensitivity.”
Harris writes about his cousin, Mila Racine, who, in her 20s, was captured by the Nazis when she was smuggling Jewish children from France to Switzerland. Initially deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany, she was transferred to Mauthausen in Austria where she perished before the war’s end.
“I doubt she would have been captivated by your advances,” Harris tells David. “I can’t imagine she would have found your segment remotely amusing.”
On the contrary, Harris points out, his cousin “was too busy trying to stay alive, to keep from starving, to stay warm in winter, to avoid the lascivious eyes of the Nazi guards, to fend off the lice and other vermin, and to summon the strength to perform the daily slave labor.”
