'Only the Germans complained about the gassed chicks': Jamie Oliver stirs up Holocaust row

Jamie Oliver caused controversy last night by making an apparent reference to the Holocaust.

The 33-year-old celebrity chef told a live audience how his Jamie’s Fowl Dinners show, about the treatment of intensively farmed chickens, was shown around the world.

The Naked Chef presenter quipped that only German viewers had complained about the controversial scene in which a group of chicks was gassed in an example of cruel industry practices.

Oliver, who campaigns for livestock welfare and healthier school meals, said: 'We had a lot of complaints about the gassing of chicks in Germany.

'It’s gone all around the world and the one country that has a problem with it is Germany. I thought “F****** hell!”’

The comments were interpreted as a reference to the Nazi regime’s use of gas chambers to kill millions of Jews during the Second World War.

However, the joke was met with an uneasy silence among the audience of 300 at the Edinburgh TV Festival.