Jimmy Carr sparks fury with Holocaust routine in Netflix special

Image source, Matt Frost/Netflix

Image caption,

Carr introduced part of his routine as being "a career ender"

Comedian Jimmy Carr has sparked outrage for a routine about the Holocaust in his latest Netflix stand-up special.

Carr has been described as "truly disturbing" for making light of the murders of hundreds of thousands of people from Europe's traveller communities during World War Two.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust said it was "absolutely appalled".

Netflix, which has been urged to remove the special, declined to comment. Carr has also not commented.

Carr's programme, titled His Dark Material, was released on the streaming platform on Christmas Day, and he introduced part of his routine as being "a career ender".

The comedian went on to say a "positive" of the Holocaust was that thousands of gypsies were murdered. The comments were greeted with applause and laughter.

Between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma and Sinti people were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The charity's chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said: "We are absolutely appalled at Jimmy Carr's comment about persecution suffered by Roma and Sinti people under Nazi oppression, and horrified that gales of laughter followed his remarks.

"Hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti people suffered prejudice, slave labour, sterilisation and mass murder simply because of their identity - these are not experiences for mockery."

• The Roma Victims of the Holocaust - BBC Witness History

Anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate said Carr "celebrates" that suffering, and called on Netflix to "take action".

The Traveller Movement - a charity supporting the traveller community in the UK - also asked Netflix to remove the one-hour special. It said the segment in question was "truly disturbing and goes way beyond humour".

It added: "Joking about the genocide of an ethnic minority is not funny."

SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes, who is co-chairman of the House of Commons All Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, wrote on Twitter that he was "utterly speechless at this disregard for the horror of the holocaust" and its impact on the Gypsy community of Europe.

He added: "A community butchered by the Nazi regime. @NetflixUK care to comment?"

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