A charity founded by the widow of Roald Dahl has denounced the late children’s author for his “undeniable racism” and issued an apology for antisemitic comments he made.
The Buckinghamshire-based Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, which was founded in 2001 by Dahl’s film producer widow Felicity Ann Dahl, acknowledged the author’s antisemitism in a statement published on its website. The statement will also be displayed on a panel at its entrance.
“The Dahl family and the Roald Dahl Story Company deeply apologise for the lasting and understandable hurt caused by Roald Dahl’s antisemitic statements,” it says.
“Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl’s stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations.
“We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words.”
The charity said that Roald Dahl’s racism was “undeniable and indelible”.
The apology comes after the charity the Antisemitism Policy Trust revealed in March that it had been working with the Roald Dahl Museum for several months to help it to confront the writer’s controversial past.
It also comes more than two and a half years after both the Dahl family and the Roald Dahl Story Company issued public apologies for the late author’s views about Jewish people.
The charity said it had engaged with several organisations within the Jewish community, including the Antisemitism Policy Trust and the Community Security Trust, another charity, since 2021. This process has included training for its staff and trustees.