“This is insanely nasty”: K-drama Bo-ra! Deborah under fire for drawing insensitive dialog regarding the Auschwitz concentration camps

Episode 9 of the romantic comedy K-drama Bo-ra! Deborah, which was released on May 10, landed in trouble after viewers were shocked to find the lead, Yeon Bo-ra, equating the Auschwitz camp prisoners’ need of survival to that of the needs of physical appearance.

Viewers took to both South Korean online forums and Twitter to express their displeasure with the scene. The Auschwitz camps were one of the largest German Nazi concentration and extermination camps operated between 1940 and 1945. It is remembered as one of the pivotal locations of the horrific and deadly Holocaust.

For Bo-ra! Deborah reducing the heartbreaking tragedies of the prisoners just to prove the female lead’s point of people wanting to look good (despite living in dire times) was deemed downright problematic by many.

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Bo-ra! Deborah ep 9 under hot waters as viewers find problematic dialog mentioning the infamous Auschwitz concentration camps

Starring Yoo In-na and Yoo Hyun-min in the lead, Bo-ra! Deborah premiered on April 12, 2023, on television network ENA. The romcom has only four episodes remaining. However, episode 9 of the show has led to much criticism both from South Korean and international netizens.

In one scene of episode 9, Yeon Bo-ra (Yoo In-na) and Lee Soo-hyuk (Yoon Hyun-min) have a discussion in a cafe. At one point, Bo-ra says that grooming oneself is a matter of survival. While the writers could have used any analogy to drive home this view, they unfortunately chose to draw comparisons with the survival instinct of the prisoners in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

In the 1940s in Germany, over 1.1 million people died at the Auschwitz camp, of which nearly a million were Jewish people. It included three camps. As per the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it was different from the other Nazi killing centers as it included a concentration camp, a labor camp, large gas chambers and crematorium.

To disregard the cruelty of the camp and paint the millions of prisoners as prioritizing grooming themselves above their will to live in Bo-ra! Deborah was deemed extremely problematic and insensitive by viewers. In the scene, Bo-ra said,

“In the Auschwitz concentration camp, where people were dying on their excrement, some of them, with a cup of water, drank half of it and washed their face with the rest. They even shaved with a piece of glass using the back of a tray as a mirror. And they survived. Taking care of your appearance and dressing up is a matter of survival.”

The scene left many disturbed. One netizen called it “extremely foul” while another called it “disgusting.” Some also wondered how the dialogs were given a green signal. Take a look at the netizens' reactions below:

No official statement has yet been released by the network channel, writer, or director as of yet.

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Meanwhile, Bo-ra! Debora has been unable to soar past even 1.5% viewership ratings. Bo-ra! Deborah episode 9 recorded the third-lowest rating while episode 10 recorded 1% ratings, nationwide. Since ENA is a paid channel, its ratings are usually lower than free broadcasts such as KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS.

The next episodes of Bo-ra! Debora will be released on May 17, 18, 24 and 25, 2023.