Roseanne Barr condemned by Anti-Defamation League CEO for ‘reprehensible’ Holocaust comments

American actor and comedian professed that ‘nobody died in the Holocaust’ during a recent appearance on a podcast

Roseanne Barr has been strongly condemned for her recent comments regarding Jewish people and the Holocaust.

This week, a clip of the 70-year-old actor and comedian on the This Past Weekend podcast went viral, as she used the Holocaust and Jewish people to make a point about political propaganda.

Barr, who is Jewish, made the inflammatory comments after claiming that there are mandates in place that define what is considered an unquestionable truth.

While doing this, she used the example of Joe Biden’s presidency as a “truth” that a person could get kicked off of “YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and all the other ones” for questioning. (Barr supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.)

“There's such a thing as the truth and facts, and we have to stick to it,” she said, to which host Theo Von replied: “It's scary.”

“And that is the truth,” Barr continued. “And nobody died in the Holocaust, either. That's the truth. It should happen. Six million Jews should die right now because they cause all the problems in the world. But it never happened.”

Though released on 14 June, the podcast clip has picked up online this week, with many taking offence to the comic’s words.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organisation specialising in civil rights law, expressed his disdain in a statement.

“Sarcasm or not, Roseanne Barr’s comments about Jews and the Holocaust are reprehensible and irresponsible. This isn’t funny,” he wrote.

“And shame on Theo Von for letting it go unchallenged and instead diving into conspiracy theories about Jews and Hollywood.”

Roseanne Barr (Getty Images for SiriusXM)

In defence of his podcast guest, Von posted a four-minute clip of their conversation and claimed that her comments weren’t meant to be taken literally.

“Here is the full clip of Roseanne Barr obviously using sarcasm and satire,” he wrote. “She is a mensch [a Yiddish term for a person of integrity and morality] and one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.”

The Independent has reached out to a representative of Roseanne Barr for comment.

Barr has become known to make controversial remarks in recent years.

Notably, the reboot of her hit Nineties sitcom, Roseanne, was cancelled in 2018 after she sent a racist tweet comparing one of Barack Obama’s aides, Valerie Jarrett, to a character from Planet of the Apes.