TV legend's shocking Nazi Germany 'concentration camp' comparison with Gaza sparks uproar: 'Understandable why they would kill or take hostages'

A prominent SBS World News presenter has sparked outrage after sharing an excerpt from a film review that compared those in Gaza to victims of Nazi concentration camps.

Mary Kostakidis, who was considered the face of the public broadcaster for 20 years, shared an excerpt from American journalist Steven Thrasher's review on the recent film The Zone of Interest, which shows a family of German Nazis living blissfully next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

In his piece, written for pro-Palestine news site Mondoweiss, Thrasher posed the question of whether the October 7 attack on Israel from Hamas could be understood.

'The Zone of Interest,' about a family of Nazis living right against the walls of Auschwitz, is the most relevant film in the world right now,' Kostakidis tweeted, as written by Thrasher in his opinion piece.

'If the Jews being shot and shoveled into ovens could just break through that wall, of course, they would kill anyone they found partying right on the other side of it! 

'And, of course, they would take women and children hostage and drag them back into their hell inside if doing so would give them leverage to free their fellow Jews from torture and death! 

'This thought, of course, set in motion an obvious but taboo moral question in my mind about one of the most pressing matters of our time: Is it understandable why people in Gaza, similarly trapped behind a wall in a concentration camp and experiencing genocide, would kill or take hostage people they found partying on the other side of the wall holding them in?'

Kostakidis was immediately hit with a barrage of criticism after sharing Thrasher's opinion to her Twitter account on Saturday.

Many labelled the journalist as 'anti-Semitic' and questioned how a comparison of Gaza to the notorious Auschwitz labour camp could be made.

Others also accused the tweet of minimising the atrocities that have occurred in the Palestine and Israel conflict, including the shocking murders of children. 

'Mary are you seriously comparing Auschwitz to Gaza?! I'm not even Jewish and even I find your tweets, tasteless, offensive and completely lacking in any sort of accurate historical comparison,' one replied.

'Wow. Disgusting and disgraceful. Antisemitism cloaked in a deliberate misstatement of the truth. You really need to retract this and apologise,' another said.

'Mary, it's incredibly disappointing to see a prominent and influential Australian attempt to justify the use of murder and kidnapping,' one tweet read.

'Man I'm not an Israel fanboy, but this is truly one of the worst comparisons I've ever seen,' another wrote.

'An absolutely diabolical post. You should be utterly ashamed of yourself. Shame shame shame!'

Others pointed to reports of the Nova festival massacre where hundreds were killed by Hamas terrorists, with some victims reportedly raped.

Kostakidis had presented the nightly news for SBS for 20 years before leaving the network in 2007.

She was the first woman to present a national prime time news bulletin.