Holocaust Christmas Carol Broadcast on Romanian TV: 'Make Kike Smoke Through the Chimney'

A Romanian TV channel has broadcast a Christmas carol celebrating the Holocaust, which makes specific allusion to the burning of Jewish people.

TVR3 Verde, a broadcaster for rural communities, aired the carol during its maiden transmission, according to Haaretz, the Israeli news service.

The song, which is performed by the Dor Transilvanian ensemble, features the lyrics:

"The kikes, damn kikes, Holy God would not leave the kike alive, neither in heaven nor on earth, only in the chimney as smoke, this is what the kike is good for, to make kike smoke through the chimney on the street."

"Kike" is a derogatory term for Jews.

TV3 distanced itself from the song, claiming that it does not pick carols, but airs songs that were chosen and compiled by the Centre for Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture, which is based in the eastern Cluj county, according to JTA news agency.

TVR considers the selection "an uninspired choice and therefore notified the Cluj County Council of this," the broadcaster's statement read.

MCA Romania, a local watchdog on anti-Semitism, has written to Romanian President Traian Basecu and to Prime Minister Victor Viorel Ponta, to complain about the broadcast.

"We are shocked to see that the Romanian Public Television Channel 3 broadcast an anti-Semitic Christmas carol," Maximillian Marco Katz and Marius Draghici of MCA Romania wrote in the letter.

"It is outrageous that none in the audience took a stance against the anti-Semitic Christian carol that incites to burn the Jews."

They added it was "absolutely unacceptable that TVR3 tried to deny responsibility" by claiming it was the responsibility of Cluj County.

Tiberiu Groza, manager for the Centre for preservation at Cluj county apologised on Facebook for the carol.

"Nobody ever thought that these carols might contain something bad or dangerous," he said.

"In the name of the ensemble members of Dor Transilvanian and as manager of the county I publicly apologise to the Jewish community in Romania and those who felt offended by the lyrics of the carol."