‘One Of Us’ Director Apologizes For Remarks On Holocaust And Hasidim

Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman October 23, 2017

The director of the Netflix documentary “One of Us,” about formerly ultra-Orthodox Jews, apologized last week for inaccurate comments she made about the Holocaust, the Jerusalem Post reported. In an appearance on the Charlie Rose show, Heide Ewing made it seem as though Hasidic Jews were targeted at a higher rate than non-religious Jews.

“The vast majority of hassidic Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust, partly because they refused to blend in,” Ewing said. “They kept wearing the clothing. They sort of were loud and proud about their identity, and the vast majority died in the Holocaust.”

Jews were, in fact, targeted simply on the basis of being Jewish. Jews who were secular and lived among non-Jewish Germans were not any less of a target for extermination by the Nazis.

Ewing apologized for her words in a statement on her website.

“Hasidic Jews suffered disproportionate losses during the Holocaust partially because they were more easily identified and therefore had more difficulty hiding,” she wrote. “It took great courage for Hasidic Jews at that time to refuse to change their appearance to look more like the general European public.”

“I am only filled with respect and admiration for any person who chooses to live their own truth,” she added.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO