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Posted August 2, 2006
When we interviewed Mel Gibson over two years ago for his controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ, we expected to make news. But we didn't know then that what Gibson had to say to us would be just as relevant today. Our interviewer, Peggy Noonan, asked Gibson about his father's rumored doubts about the scope of the Holocaust. Here's how Gibson responded:
MEL GIBSON: My dad taught me my faith, and I believe what he taught me. The man never lied to me in his life. He was born in 1918. He lost his mother at two years of age. He lost his father at 15. He went through the Depression. He signed up for World War II, went off to Guadalcanal, got malaria and shot at, and didn't like it too much. [He] served his country fighting the forces of fascism, came back, worked very hard physically, raised a family, put a roof over my head, clothed me, fed me, taught me my faith, loved me, I love him back. And he did all that so some guy has the right to misrepresent him and say nasty things and paint him in a very bad light. And then other people said, 'Well, he's just an old kook.' He's not an old kook. He's very intelligent. He's in complete possession of all his mental faculties. And if he says something he has a reason why he says it and he can back it up. Mensa wanted this guy, okay? He's very intelligent. So I'll slug it out with anyone until my heart is black and blue if they say anything against him or ever try and hurt him in that way. Now, that said, you know, I pray for the guy who maligned him in that way and hope that he will one day apologize.
NOONAN: You're going to have to go on the record. The Holocaust happened, right?
MEL GIBSON: I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. The guy who taught me Spanish was a Holocaust survivor. He worked in a concentration camp in France. Yes, of course. And my dad also knows that there were internment camps where many people died. Now, his whole thing was about the numbers. I mean atrocities happened. The thing with him [my father] was that he was talking about numbers. I mean when the war was over they said it was 12 million. Then it was six. Now it's four. I mean it's that kind of numbers game. I mean war is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine, several million people starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century 20 million people died in the Soviet Union. Okay? It's horrible.
Read our original March 2004 cover story.
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