British television buys Hitler painting for the public to decide on its possible destruction

British television Channel 4 has acquired a picture painted by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler for the audience of one of its programs to vote after a debate on whether to destroy the work.

Jimmy Carr’s program will discuss whether the work can be separated from its creator with the proposal to vote afterwards on whether to tear Hitler’s painting to shreds.

A spokesman for the network explained that they have also considered “destroying the work with a flamethrower” on the Jimmy Carr destroys art program, scheduled to air on October 24.

The Holocaust Remembrance Day Consortium has criticized the idea for “making Hitler the subject of a light entertainment program.”

“There is nothing entertaining or funny about Hitler or the murder of six million Jews and the persecution of thousands more,” the Consortium’s executive director, Olivia Marks-Woldman, told U.S. broadcaster CNN. “It is highly inappropriate and at a time when the distortion of the Holocaust is increasing to the point where it is being trivialized,” she argued.

From Channel 4 they argue for a “thorough and nuanced exploration of the limits of freedom of expression in art and whether morally despicable artists deserve to be seen.” “It deals directly with the current debate about the cancellation culture and has a long tradition on Channel 4’s schedule,” the broadcaster added.

The ‘Hitler Watercolors’ were auctioned but were left without an owner due to doubts about their authenticity. The network bought the work despite being a public television station, albeit privately funded.

The choice of Carr to host this episode has also generated controversy over a recent joke about gypsies killed during World War II at the hands of the Nazi regime. “Choosing Jimmy Carr to host this episode is a deliberate and inflammatory provocation considering his history of using the murder of gypsies and sitis by the Nazis and their collaborators to make jokes,” Marks-Woldman has indicated.