Seth Rogen, triumphant again Image by Getty Images

By Ari Feldman June 24, 2020

Seth Rogen admitted his surprise on Twitter that Mel Gibson’s “oven dodger” comment about the Jewish actress Winona Ryder allowed for the existence of the Holocaust.

I’m only surprised by Mel Gibson’s “oven dodger” comment because it acknowledges the Holocaust actually happened.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 23, 2020

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Ryder revealed (for a second time, as it turned out) that the actor and director — and well-known anti-Semite — once called her an “oven dodger.” The term is a reference to the crematoria in Nazi-run concentration camps, where the bodies of Jews who had been murdered in gas chambers were systematically burned, often by fellow Jews who were forced to do the work.

The furor over the comments led to Gibson losing his voice acting role in the upcoming animated sequel movie “Chicken Run 2.”

Gibson was most recently in the news related to anti-Semitism, in 2016, for linking his newfound sobriety to not being anti-Semitic anymore. Art the time, Gibson said it was “really unfair” that he had been linked with anti-Semitism after a drunken tirade directed at Jews in 2006 during a DUI arrest.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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