"The radio even weren't allowed to say there was a Holocaust and people were being killed right, left and center in these terrible camps"
About this Quote
Macnee’s intent is accusatory in a quiet way. He’s pushing against the comfortable modern fantasy that the public was fully informed and simply chose indifference. His phrasing implies a system that treated certain truths as dangerous knowledge, even when those truths were already happening. The subtext is about power: who decides what a nation can bear, and what gets sacrificed when leaders prioritize steadiness over clarity.
“Right, left and center” is the key piece of actorly, colloquial emphasis. It’s not meant to be numerically precise; it’s meant to convey the sense that death was omnidirectional, relentless, and yet somehow still kept off-air. The line also contains a moral sting: the camps are called “terrible,” but the real horror is the gap between catastrophe and broadcast, between mass murder and the silence of the living room.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Macnee, Patrick. (n.d.). The radio even weren't allowed to say there was a Holocaust and people were being killed right, left and center in these terrible camps. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-radio-even-werent-allowed-to-say-there-was-a-169637/
Chicago Style
Macnee, Patrick. "The radio even weren't allowed to say there was a Holocaust and people were being killed right, left and center in these terrible camps." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-radio-even-werent-allowed-to-say-there-was-a-169637/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The radio even weren't allowed to say there was a Holocaust and people were being killed right, left and center in these terrible camps." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-radio-even-werent-allowed-to-say-there-was-a-169637/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.




