HMV describing Jewish refugee children as Central European Children

[Trulywonderful]

Would I be unreasonable to as any of you on twitter or willing to write an email complaint to HMV to do me a favour

HMV have described the Jewish refugee children in the new One Life film as Central European Children. This is erasing there Jewishness from the description. I know some may feel objection to this is petty but at the moment the Jewish community are seeing a far bit of this behaviour. Erasing us from things to make people feel more comfortable etc

Anyway if people want to help and tweet about this or email HMV I would be very grateful

You do realise the Warner Brothers were Jewish? Why then would their company erase reference to Jews for monetary gain?
The reference to central european children is technically correct

The Kindertransport memorial was vandalised in Berlin the other day with what looks like pro-Palestinian graffiti. Do you think this was because the Kinder were Central European?

If you haven't been paying attention, Jews are being targeted in lots of different ways at the moment. A boy was attacked outside a Jewish school in London on Friday and forced to say 'Free Palestine'.

Last week an group attempted to organise an anti-Israeli protest at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

So yeah, you should be suspicious when the word Jew doesn't appear in the description of a film where being Jewish is pretty central to the plot.

Surely the answer here is obvious? You do realise that there is a war between Israel and Gaza currently, right? Antisemitic incidents have risen, suggesting that there is a backlash against Jewish people because of this. The films producers do not want to risk financial loss so they remove the ‘Jewishness’ in order not to put off film goers who may be anti- Israel.
Its fairly straightforward.
Also I don’t think the original Warner brothers are still kicking about so whether they were Jewish or not is irrelevant. I doubt the current owners are bothered but I bet they’re bothered about taking a financial hit because of the geopolitical climate.
And given the motivation for the Kindertransport. (Kristallnacht) describing the children as Jewish is correct.

@ChalkWitch
Surely the answer here is obvious? You do realise that there is a war between Israel and Gaza currently, right?
Don't be obtuse, of course I do

The films producers do not want to risk financial loss so they remove the ‘Jewishness’ in order not to put off film goers who may be anti- Israel.
This is an assumption - no doubt that there are some people who are unaware of the topic of the film, but to assume that if the content was to be announced because a majority (not all) of the children were Jewish, it would determine whether or not they attended is daft. As with any film, it will cause polarisation of opinion; look at The Passion of Christ, Life of Brian, etc.
Also, are you saying those who are anti-Israel (your words) or anti-semetic? The distinction is important

Also I don’t think the original Warner brothers are still kicking about so whether they were Jewish or not is irrelevant. I doubt the current owners are bothered but I bet they’re bothered about taking a financial hit because of the geopolitical climate.
No, they are not alive; but in relation to the current owners, you 'betting they are bothered about a financial hit' is just as judgemental as you think others may be. What on earth are you basing this assertion on?

@quisensoucie why do you think the Kindertransport memorial was vandalised? Was it because the children were Central European?

@noblegiraffe This thread is about the film. My response was about the film
I am not getting dragged into your argument here

The film is about the Kindertransport so it seems pretty relevant.

Can't imagine why you wouldn't want to answer my question.

Yes,and not just Jewish people. Romani, gay people, mentally ill,academics, communists.....

Why was the Kindertransport set up? Who was it designed to rescue and why?

Quite surprised to learn there were "gay people....academics and communists" on the Kindertransport. @NannyOggsWhiskyStash

Why is there this desperate need to deny the incontrovertible fact that the majority of the victims of the Holocaust were Jewish? It’s weird and depressing.

Also, ‘gay people, academics and communists’ aren’t remotely relevant to this thread as we are discussing the Kindertransport.

Thank you. This erasure is going on worldwide and it is disgusting and needs to stop.

BA removed the sitcom Hapless from its lineup due to 'not wanting to be seen to support Israel' in the ME conflict. The sitcom is about a Jewish family in London.

LA's new Hollywood museum has totally erased mentions of the Jewish roots in Hollywood - created by Jewish people as Jews were banned from many professions, but not media, so they made the best of their situation.

LA's new Hollywood museum has totally erased mentions of the Jewish roots in Hollywood - created by Jewish people as Jews were banned from many professions, but not media, so they made the best of their situation

@sergeantsalt That's interesting, I didn't know this. On the one hand Jews being prohibited from other professions is an important part of the story. But I wonder in this specific case there might be an argument that it actually is protecting the Jewish community rather than erasing them, in order to dissociate from and not feed a very well known antisemitic trope?

I don't think anyone here was denying that majority of victims in Holocaust were Jewish nor that majority going through Kindertransport were Jewish.

I think some might confuse Holocaust time with Holocaust occasionally, but that's a different matter. Tbf the conflicting information around the world on victims of Holocaust doesn't help. Some use it only for Jewish, the 6million, some include other groups which means that they count 11-17 milion people.

While not denying it, some seen keen to promote the idea that it's not worth mentioning.

No slip, completely deliberate and designed to highlight just how offensive the whatabouttery is when addressing the Kristallnacht/Kindertransport.

Apologies if the sarcasm sailed straight over your head.

The reference to central european children is technically correct
It is, but it also deliberately overlooks the reason the children needed to be rescued, which wasn't for being central European.

There's no good reason to avoid explicitly mentioning that the majority of children on those trains were Jewish, unless the intention is to gloss over the racism behind their persecution.

Hitler and the Nazis weren't persecuting children for being central European.

Exactly.

I mean “children with ears and eyes” would technically be correct (I’m making an assumption all the rescued children had both) but it wouldn’t be relevant.

People’s belief that this is an innocent mistake or a technicality is so naive it’s almost adorable. But non-Jewish people won’t always see just how far anti-semitism and Jewish erasure creeps. It’s in the nooks and crannies of society and unless you look out for it you will never see it

And to add to this; yes, some of the children on the train weren't Jewish. My great aunt wasn't.
But she was on it because her parents were active in saving Jews and were in danger. They sent her away so they could continue to save (and got sent to a concentration camp for doing so) without her being at risk.

So although she wasn't Jewish, the fact that the Jews were being persecuted put her in danger.

The first one is more correct though. It is not correct to say "the young Jewish children were brought..." because the group were not comprised of just young Jewish children. If they were 100% a Jewish group it would have been erasure, but it wasn't.

I was not denying it was mainly Jewish children, but you also cannot write the other victimised groups out of history. Wtaf

I wonder if some are trying to put people on the Kindertransport who weren’t there.

I can’t believe this thread is still getting replies about the demographics. It feels very ‘all lives matter’. Although the Nazis persecuted other groups a PP posted a source confirming 84% of the children were Jewish, and the rest were children of people who opposed the Nazis politically, rather than belonging to those other groups. Even if the 16% of non Jewish children did form part of other persecuted groups, it would still be correct to say ‘mainly Jewish.’

If this had been done to any other ethnic minority, black Europeans for example, with 84% of the children being black and the rest being persecuted because they were children of people politically opposed to what was being done to black Europeans, I have no doubt everyone could see that it would be wrong to describe the group as Central Europeans only. It would completely erase the reason they needed transport in the first place, by suggesting all Central Europeans were being persecuted and a random group of them were rescued.

I’m not Jewish and I have truly had my eyes opened since the attack last year. I don’t know which makes me more sad - the fact that Warner Bros did this as they anticipated current levels of anti Jewish hatred would affect the performance of the film, or the realisation that they are unfortunately probably correct in their anticipation.

It feels very ‘all lives matter’.

It really does. And as you point out, if we were talking about any other minority group, this would not be happening.

Yes!

Im sure I read somewhere that the KKK killed white people who were black allies. I’d never have it any other way that a movie or book about the KKK should headline with ‘black people’ not ‘people from the South’