Roald Dahl Museum Apologizes For Late British Author’s Antisemitism, Calling It ‘Undeniable and Indelible”

Shiryn Ghermezian

Roald Dahl. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre released a statement this week apologizing for antisemitic remarks made by the late British author of children’s books.

The museum and charity — located in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, in England — said in a post shared on its website that it supports an apology that the Dahl family and Roald Dahl Story Company issued in 2020 regarding its namesake’s antisemitic views about Jews.

Dahl was notorious for his antisemitic beliefs, which included his remark that “there is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews,” according to a 1983 interview the author gave to Britain’s New Statesman magazine, adding that “even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” Dahl died in 1990 at the age of 74.

“We do not repeat Dahl’s antisemitic statements publicly, but we do keep a record of what he wrote and said in the Museum’s collection, so it is not forgotten,” the museum said in its statement. “Roald Dahl’s racism is undeniable and indelible but what we hope can also endure is the potential of Dahl’s creative legacy to do some good.”

Apart from his controversial remarks about Jews, Dahl’s hatred of Israel and Zionism is also well documented.“I’m certainly anti-Israeli, and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism,” he told The Independent in 1990. “It’s the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it. There aren’t any non-Jewish publishers anywhere, they control the media—jolly clever thing to do—that’s why the president of the United States has to sell all this stuff to Israel.”

The museum also noted that since 2021 it has worked with the Jewish organizations such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Community Security Trust and the Antisemitism Policy Trust to further educate themselves and train its staff about antisemitism. The institution is also developing teaching resources for schools that aim “to combat prejudice by championing universal children’s rights, explored through the experiences of characters in Roald Dahl’s stories.”