The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer reiterated claims that the Holocaust was being hijacked to justify massacres of Gazans in a letter, read at Friday’s 2025 César Awards.
Glazer was not in France to accept the award for best foreign film, but a proxy read a message to the audience asserting that the Holocaust film’s subject of dehumanization was “alarmingly” relevant.
“The Holocaust and Jewish security are being used to justify the massacres and ethnic cleansing in Gaza after the October 7 massacre and the hostage-taking in Israel,” read Glazer’s letter. “In both cases, these are acts of terrorism against innocent people made possible by the dehumanization of people on the other side of the wall of the zone of interest.”
Glazer’s statement was met with applause and cheers from the audience of the Paris national film awards.
Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) president Yonathan Arfi said Saturday that for their applause, the audience had won the award for “indignity” and Glazer the award for “indecency” for his Holocaust comparisons.
“Gaza is not Auschwitz. This collective jubilation in turning the memory of the Shoah against Israel is a form of revisionism as perverse as it is dangerous,” Arfi said on X/Twitter. “Hamas could not dream of a better ambassador.”
Glazer said in his letter that he was echoing what he had said during his March 10 acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best International Film.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation that has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” Glazer said in his acceptance speech. “Whether the victims of October the 7 in Israel or the attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization – how do we resist?”
Controversial comments
The comments had led to controversy, with Holocaust survivors and Jewish film industry workers condemning the comparison between the Holocaust and Israel-Hamas War.
The British Jewish filmmaker’s film, based on a book by the same name, explores the family life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss at his residence next to the Nazi death camp.