Fox News anchor Greg Gutfeld has been awash with criticism after he said that Jewish people "had to be useful" in order to survive the Holocaust during Monday's broadcast of the network's top show, "The Five."
Fox News staffers and insiders told The Daily Beast that the remarks were a "disgusting thing" for its resident "comedian" to say, adding that "at any other place, his career would be over."
Gutfeld made the comment while defending Florida's new and controversial history education curriculum, which will endeavor to teach children that slavery provided Black Americans with "personal benefit" by helping them develop skills. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, has suggested that experiencing slavery was a beneficial experience for come enslaved people and has defended the "anti-woke" lesson plans amid nationwide criticism.
During Monday's edition of "The Five," the panel blasted Vice President Kamala Harris' rebuff of the education standards as racist. Jesse Watters, a co-host and newly minted primetime anchor for the network, criticized Harris for not wanting "African-Americans and white Americans to know that Black Americans did learn skills despite being enslaved."
The hosts' conversation shifted, however, when the sole liberal panelist, Jessica Tarlov, made a connection between slavery and the Holocaust, wondering if Florida schools would go on to teach that Jewish people received some benefit from the Nazis' systemic murder of them in concentration camps.
"Obviously I'm not Black, but I'm Jewish," Tarlov began. "Would someone say about the Holocaust, for instance, that there were some benefits for Jews? That while they were hanging out in concentration camps they learned a strong work ethic? That maybe you learned a new skill?"
Gutfeld referenced Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl's famous book to respond to Tarlov's question.
"Did you ever read 'Man's Search for Meaning'?" Gutfeld said. "Vik Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful. Utility! Utility kept you alive!"
A clip of Gutfeld's comments soon spread across social media, prompting immediate backlash from media observers and journalists who believed the host had crossed the line.
"I wanted to throw up after this comment," Juliet Jeske, a research associate for the Tow-Knight Center News Integrity Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, wrote of the viral clip she tweeted from her Fox News tracking account, Decoding Fox News. "How would he not know that Jews were sorted the day they arrived in some camps and were immediately murdered. I thought that was common knowledge. A lot of them were children."
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Gutfeld's comments have also drawn critiques from people within the conservative network, which has long since navigated the controversy generated by the inflammatory rhetoric of its commentators. The Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly admonished the network for pedaling "racist" and "fringe" commentary, including white supremacist ideology like the "Great Replacement" theory.
"Obviously, it is a disgusting thing to say, same with Jesse's remarks on the matter," one unnamed Fox News producer told the Daily Beast. "Just generally speaking, I'm amazed that FOX has any ability to retain employees from multicultural backgrounds. Our workplace is shockingly diverse given the vitriol that often makes it to the air. Understand that they're likely here for the same reasons I am, these jobs are scarce, but I can't help but feel awful for them because they undoubtedly see this nonsense and can't do anything to stop it."
When asked for a reaction, another reporter simply told the outlet "yikes," while a Fox insider hinted that there was a "lot of internal worry" about Gutfeld's controversy, especially since he recently ascended to a primetime slot.
"At any other place, his career would be over," the insider added.
The host faced severe criticism this week for misrepresenting the message of Frankl's book and downplaying the horrors of the Holocaust.
"Everyone else at Fox fine with Gutfeld suggesting Jews sent to concentration camps could survive 'by being useful?' How can any of his fellow panelists show up tomorrow to sit there next to him?" neo-conservative commentator Bill Kristol, who is Jewish, rhetorically asked online Monday night.
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"This f**king imbecile @greggutfeld is beyond absurd. He argues that Jews honed skills in the Holocaust that allowed some to survive," Trump impeachment whistleblower Alexander Vindman, who is also Jewish, added on Monday night. "More than SIX MILLION men, women, & children died because they weren't useful enough. @FoxNews is complicit in this hateful tirade. #NeverAgain."
Eric Kleefeld, a senior writer for watchdog Media Matters, argued that, in making those comments, Gutfeld "unrionically extolls" the infamous phrase "Arbeit macht frei," which translates to "Work sets you free," that hung above the entrance of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Gutfeld also garnered a condemnation from the Auschwitz Museum, which called his comments an "oversimplification" of the atrocity and fact-checked the self-proclaimed "King of Late Night."
"While it is true that some Jews may have used their skills or usefulness to increase their chances of survival during the Holocaust, it is essential to contextualize this statement properly and understand that it does not represent the complex history of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany," the museum wrote on Twitter in a lengthy statement.
"Viktor Frankl's observation about the specific situation in Auschwitz, which at some point became a camp that connected the functions of a concentration camp and extermination center and where deported Jews went through the selection process, highlights how some Jews became registered prisoners and might have used their skills to gain favor or prolong their lives in that particular setting," the statement continued. "Yet, it never gave them complete protection."
The statement also noted that there "were no selections in extermination camps" and that "being useful did not offer protection" in the final stages of the Holocaust, ending with a firm correction of Gutfeld's comments.
"Therefore, while it is accurate to acknowledge that some Jews may have survived temporarily due to their perceived usefulness, it is crucial to remember that the Holocaust was a systematic genocide with the ultimate aim of exterminating the entire Jewish population," the statement concluded. "It would be more appropriate to say that some Jews survived the Holocaust because they were considered temporarily useful, and the circumstances of the Nazi regime's collapse prevented their murder. We should avoid such oversimplifications in talking about this complex tragic story."
A spokesperson for the ADL also told The Daily Beast that, while the crux of Gutfeld's suggestion was unclear, what was apparent was his lack of knowledge of the facts.
"It is not clear from Gutfeld's comments if he is arguing that Jews learned skills in the Holocaust, or that Jews who had skills had a better chance of staying alive. The latter is something that is well-documented, while the former is nonsense. That said, many millions of Jews, who, in Gutfeld's words, had 'utility' were still murdered," the spokesperson said.
"Moreover, the main argument in Frankl's book was more about how those who had something to live for–a relative they wanted to be with, a book they wanted to write, research they were in the middle of, etc.–had a better mental chance of surviving because it motivated them not to give up," he added.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates condemned Gutfeld's remarks in a statement to CNN.
"What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday — and has so far failed to condemn — is an obscenity," he began.
"In defending a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement, a Fox News host told another horrid, dangerous and extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils of the Holocaust," he continued.
"Let's get something straight that the American people understand full well and that is not complicated: there was nothing good about slavery; there was nothing good about the Holocaust. Full stop," Bates added. "Americans deserve to be brought together, not torn apart with poison. And they deserve the truth and the freedom to learn, not book bans and lies."
Though Gutfeld has built his brand, in part, by assuming the role of Fox News' resident "edgy" provocateur, he has also taken aim at others for referencing the Holocaust in offensive ways.
During a 2015 segment, Gutfeld rebuked actress Shirley MacLaine for suggesting in her memoir that Holocaust victims could have been "balancing their karma from ages before" due to the possibility that they may have been Roman soldiers or crusaders in another life.
"That's not just offensive but an example of imposter intelligence, for intellect without boundaries is mere stupidity," Gutfeld said, adding, "Shirley wasn't in a concentration camp, allowing her to use their hell for fun and profit."
Gutfeld, who debuted his latest book on Tuesday, concluded: "Did Shirley write this awful book as punishment for her being a horrible creep in a previous life? No, because she's a horrible creep in her present life."
Fox News did not respond to the Daily Beast's requests for comment.
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