BBC fails to mention Jews in some Holocaust Remembrance Day coverage, sparking outrage

The BBC was criticized Tuesday after a number of broadcasts erased the Jewish identity of the victims of the Holocaust during reports on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

According to The Telegraph, a seven-minute report on Holocaust Remembrance Day that was broadcast on BBC Breakfast made no mention of either Jews or antisemitism.

The presenter said that it was a “day for remembering the six million people who were murdered by the Nazi regime over 80 years ago.”

In news broadcasts, BBC Radio 4 initially mentioned that “six million people” were killed during the Holocaust, again with no mention of Jews.

In a later report, the broadcaster said “six million mainly Jewish” people died. It is widely accepted that the Nazis killed six million Jews during the genocide.

The Daily Mail said that at least four presenters referred to “six million people,” rather than Jews, over the course of the day.

This is an absolute disgrace.@bbcnews @BBCr4today completely erased the Jews from Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Apparently "six million PEOPLE" were murdered.

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"people"? Were they just randomly chosen?
Have they no shame at all? pic.twitter.com/HCMGD4dr7J

— David Collier (@mishtal) January 27, 2026

The British national broadcaster later apologized.

“In the news bulletins… and in the introduction to the story on BBC Breakfast there were references to Holocaust Memorial Day which were incorrectly worded, and for which we apologise,” the broadcaster said.

“Both should have referred to ‘six million Jewish people’ and we will be issuing a correction on our website,” the statement read.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said in a statement to British news outlets that it was an “abuse of the memory” to fail to mention that the victims of the Holocaust were Jewish.

“The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children. Ignoring that the victims were Jews, widening the figure to include all victims of the Second World War, or attempting to draw in contemporary conflicts, is an abuse of the memory of the Holocaust and an insult to victims and survivors,” said Pollock.

“Any attempt to dilute the Holocaust, strip it of its Jewish specificity, or compare it to contemporary events is unacceptable on any day. On Holocaust Memorial Day, it is especially hurtful, disrespectful and wrong,” she said.

Lord Eric Pickles, co-chairman of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said that the BBC’s omission of the fact that the victims were Jewish was “an unambiguous example of Holocaust distortion, which is a form of denial.”

“This kind of obfuscation was common during the Soviet control of parts of Europe,” said Pickles, who is now co-chairman of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation. “For the BBC to use it today is shocking. They should be fighting antisemitism, not aiding it.”

In December, following widespread criticism of how it reported Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the BBC ordered all staff members to complete a training course on antisemitism, as well as one on Islamophobia.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), a nonprofit established by the UK government to promote and support International Holocaust Memorial Day, said this month that the number of British schools commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day has dropped by nearly 60 percent in the past two years.

According to figures published by the Community Service Trust, a Jewish security charity, antisemitic incidents have been soaring in Britain since the war against Hamas in Gaza began. Within days of Hamas’s attack, and even before Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, there were mass anti-Israel protests in London.

More than 1,500 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the UK between January and June 2025, a figure that is second only to the first half of 2024, CST said in August. Two people were killed during a terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur.