Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NEW YORK, May 2 (UPI) -- The Anti-Defamation League, which had voiced concern about a TV miniseries on Adolf Hitler, now says the show is "a powerful tool" to educate people about evil. "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" -- a four-hour miniseries, starring Robert Carlyle ("The Full Monty," "The World Is Not Enough") -- is scheduled to air on CBS on May 18 and 20. When the network first began to publicize the project, ADL officials said they were concerned that it might make Hitler out to be a sympathetic figure. Advertisement CBS officials have tried all along to assure skeptics that the series would do nothing of the sort. Now, in an interview with United Press International, ADL national director Abraham Foxman has endorsed the show. "I think it's a powerful tool to educate generations that don't remember, don't understand, have never been taught the power of evil," said Foxman, "and what happened during World War II and the Holocaust -- and the evil that one man was able to unleash because the people weren't willing to stand up." Advertisement Foxman watched a screening copy of the show last week. "What comes through is that Germany was a democracy, and how fragile that democracy became," he said. "The saddest part of it all is how many occasions there were to stop him, and he wasn't stopped." Foxman said the miniseries presents a variety of reasons why people did not stand up to Hitler as he became more and more powerful in Germany. "Some found opportunities with him," said Foxman. "Some agreed with him. Some wanted to follow him. Some were in fear of him." Foxman said the show does not portray Hitler in a sympathetic light at all. Rather, he said it shows Hitler exploiting bigotry, prejudice, hatred and discrimination to acquire and keep power. "It portrays him as a human being," he said. "That's a very poignant point. He's not a monster. He's like everybody else except he has certain fixations about power, how to get that power." Although he had expressed reservations about the miniseries before seeing it, Foxman said he held back on judging it until he actually saw it. "What we were responding to was the promotion and the hype several months ago by the production company, which basically was setting forth that they would do what nobody else had done, portray Hitler's youth," he said. "Based on that, we were very much concerned that it would trivialize Hitler." Advertisement Daily Variety reported that the script that was eventually filmed for "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" was a rewrite of the original script, written in consultation with Jewish scholars and advisers to make sure it didn't go easy on Hitler. The paper also said that CBS contributed money to a Holocaust memorial and agreed to air anti-hate PSAs. The ADL has expressed similar concern recently about Mel Gibson's upcoming movie "Passion" -- which Gibson has said will be a faithful historical account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of Interfaith Affairs at the ADL in New York, told the Los Angeles Times he is concerned that the project might provoke religious animosity. "Historically, Passion plays have been very dangerous productions in terms of Christian attitudes toward Jews," said Korn. "Many dramatic presentations of the Passion contained anti-Semitic elements that led to the charge of deicide and responsibility of Jews for the crucifixion. Not only Jews who lived then, but Jews for all time." So far, whatever controversy there is around Gibson's project has been tentative -- based mainly on a magazine article in which Gibson's father is quoted denying the Holocaust. The Times reported that Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, belongs to a traditionalist movement that practices a 16th-century form of Roman Catholicism, denies the legitimacy of popes, and rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) -- including the council's declaration that Jews are not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus. Advertisement Foxman told UPI he expected to read Gibson's screenplay soon. Meantime, he said it is fair to express concern about the possibility that the movie's tone could be problematic. "We're not prejudging the film," he said. "We're reacting to what people are saying it will be." "Passion" is scheduled to be released in 2004.
