Christopher Biggins to visit Auschwitz after Shoah ‘joke’
The evicted Celebrity Big Brother contestant apologised for his 'trite, ridiculous remark' on live TV
Christopher Biggins will visit Auschwitz after being removed from the Celebrity Big Brother house for making a Holocaust “joke” aimed at a Jewish housemate.
The pantomime veteran, 67, said he will continue with a pre-planned trip in October to the Polish city of Krakow and visit the nearby concentration camp, where more than one million people, predominantly Jews, were killed by the Nazis.
He was booted out of the Channel 5 reality show on Friday after being given three warnings by Big Brother for his remarks on bisexuality and for a comment about gas chambers to X Factor reject Katie Waissel, who is Jewish.
As housemates queued for the bathroom, he said: “You better be careful or they’ll be putting you in a shower and taking you to a room.”
He later apologised to the singer and Big Brother for the “trite, ridiculous remark”, which was not broadcast but which he discussed in an interview.
He told The Sun: “I am going there (to Auschwitz). It will be my first time. I know it’s going to be horrible. I know it’s going to be ghastly. I know it’s going to be emotional.
“Before I went into the house, my partner Neil (Sinclair) and I were talking about it because we just feel the whole scenario of the Jewish annihilation is so horrific that we wanted to experience it for ourselves.
“We’re going for five days in October. I’m really looking forward to it. Especially now after this incident.
“It’s strange that I had already decided to experience it myself.”
Biggins had also received a warning on Friday after he made controversial statements on bisexuality and Aids during a conversation with Aubrey O’Day and Renee Graziano.
He claimed HIV had been spread by bisexuals who had sex with people with the virus abroad “and brought it back to their own families in America and that’s how it became a worldwide disease”.
Biggins had also claimed bisexuals were “people not wanting to admit they are gay”.
He told the Sun he found it “frightening” that people might not feel able to voice their opinions for fear of criticism.
“I think people are aggressive towards people who have ideas and different things they believe in. You can’t have a state where you can’t say this and you can’t say that.
“But we are very close to that and I think it’s rather frightening.
“It would be horrible if we’re not allowed to say what we think.”
Four contestants are up for nomination in the second round of evictions.
Storage Hunters UK’s Heavy D, Loose Women panellist Saira Khan and The Only Way Is Essex’s Lewis Bloor received the most nominations from their fellow housemates and face the live eviction on Tuesday.
They go up alongside Ex On The Beach’s Stephen Bear, who has an eternal nomination, meaning he is up for eviction for the remainder of the series.
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