Anti-Defamation League boss slams Erykah Badu for 'irresponsible' Hitler comments

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Anti-Defamation League chief Johnathan Greenblatt has called on Erykah Badu to issue an immediate apology for comments she made about Adolf Hitler in an interview.

The On & On singer said she sees the "good" in Hitler, the mastermind behind World War Two and the Holocaust, and other controversial figures, such as accused rapist Bill Cosby and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, in a new interview with Vulture, released on Wednesday (24Jan18).

"I saw something good in Hitler...," she told the publication. "I'm a humanist. I see good in everybody... I know I don't have the most popular opinion sometimes."

Anti-Defamation League leader Greenblatt insists the star's statements are clearly more than a casual opinion and he has slammed Erykah for using her platform to sympathise with one of the greatest villains in history, who orchestrated the largest genocide of all time by exterminating six million Jews.

"Erykah Badu, I read your interview in @Vulture, and I have a few thoughts," the CEO of the charity, which is the largest Jewish civil rights organisation in the world, wrote on his Twitter account.

"I also like to think that there is good in all people," he added, "but Hitler is pure evil. I don't care if he painted or was a vegetarian; Hitler is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews & a war that claimed the lives of tens of millions. Shame on you for downplaying that."

He also took issue with her support of Farrakhan, who was widely criticised as a homophobe and anti-Semite, and demanded she take responsibility for her dangerous words.

"You are a role model to many, and as such, you should immediately apologize for these irresponsible and misguided comments," Greenblatt insisted on Twitter.

In response to the controversy surrounding her interview, Erykah took to her own Twitter account and suggested her words had been taken out of context.

"The media is banking on our ignorance. Know we won't read the whole thing," she tweeted. "They'll use controversial quotes w/trigger (with trigger) words as Click Bait. We (love) controversy. So Blogs choose easiest thing to 'spin'. Get you mad. Help you get a little rage out. They get more adds (sic)."

She has yet to explain what she was trying to say in the interview.