The Anti-Defamation League called on an Indian television network to change the title of a popular soap opera on Tuesday, claiming that the name "Hitler Didi" was inappropriate and offensive.
The soap opera airs five days a week on Zee TV, a division of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited based in Mumbai. Last week, the ADL sent a letter requesting the name be changed to one that is “not freighted with the taint of the Nazi Holocaust.”
“Hitler Didi” (roughly translated “Auntie Hitler”) refers to a young woman in the show who is known for being strict to her surroundings.
“The name Hitler doesn’t belong in the title of a soap opera,” ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor Abraham H. Foxman said. “We think the producers of this program have made a terrible error in judgment that can only be remedied with a title change.”
He added: “Hitler was an anti-Semite, fascist dictator and mass murderer responsible for the annihilation of European Jewry. That millions of soap opera fans in India are now hearing and talking about a program with the name ‘Hitler’ on a daily basis is shocking. This is a terrible trivialization of a name freighted with the taint of the Nazi Holocaust.”
