Oliver Stone has apologised for "clumsy" comments he made in an English newspaper, suggesting the Holocaust has become Hitler's most prominent atrocity because of Jewish control of the media.
In an interview with Britain's Sunday Times, the director was explaining how his latest documentary about the Nazi leader and former Soviet dictator Stalin would put the two men "in context".
He added, "Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support. Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 (million killed)."
And when asked why he thought there had been more of a historical focus on the killings of Jews during the Holocaust, he replied, "Jewish domination of the media. There's a major lobby in the United States. They (Jews) are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington."
The comments caused outrage online, with the The Anti-Defamation League slamming Stone for "suggesting that Hitler has gotten an unfair shake because of Jewish influence."
Now the moviemaker has released a statement, speaking of his regret over the remarks.
He says, "In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret.
"Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry. The fact that the Holocaust is still a very important, vivid and current matter today is, in fact, a great credit to the very hard work of a broad coalition of people committed to the remembrance of this atrocity - and it was an atrocity."