A Belgian cooking show, one that details the favourite foods of famous people, is pulling an episode of their programme that covers Adolph Hitler’s favourite meal after being slammed by a Jewish group.
After studying the mysteries of mussels and chips, preferred by Belgian singer Jacques Brel and the late Queen front man Freddy Mercury’s curried chicken, Flemish chef Jeroen Meus intended to go to Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” to investigate Hitler’s favourite meal.
The chief editor of Antwerp’s Joods Actueel Jewish community magazine, Michael Freilich, denounced the programme in advance for “presenting Hitler as a simple man of the people”.
He accused Meus, whose series also looked at surrealist painter Salvador Dali’s favourite “Catalan lobster”, of being “naive” and ill-informed about the Holocaust and the effects on its survivors.
Six million Jews from across Nazi-occupied Europe perished during the Holocaust.
Belgium’s deportees association also expressed concern about the programme.
But in a statement, Jan Stevens, director of Canvas television, part of the VRT chain broadcasting the programme, said it would help people to “have a better understanding of the dictator”.
“It is not in any way trying to humanise Hitler. Jeroen Meus explains it clearly in the introduction and during the programme, by contrasting the luxury of Eagles Nest and World War II,” he said.