The Guardian newspaper has published a series of corrections and clarifications concerning its recent obituary for the celebrated playwright, Sir Tom Stoppard. The amendments address significant factual errors about the fate of his family during the Holocaust and the production date of one of his plays.
Correcting the Historical Record
In the original piece, it was incorrectly stated that Sir Tom's four grandparents and several other relatives from his parents' generation "died in the death camp at Terezín". This description has been rectified to provide a more accurate and historically precise account.
The newspaper now clarifies that Terezín, located in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, was a transit camp and ghetto, not a dedicated death camp like Auschwitz. Furthermore, the specific fates of Stoppard's grandparents have been corrected. His paternal grandparents died at the Riga ghetto in Latvia, while his maternal grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz.
Amendments to Stoppard's Theatrical Work
A second error concerned the timeline of Stoppard's later work. The obituary had mistakenly reported that his play The Hard Problem was first produced in 2006. The correction confirms that the play's debut was, in fact, in 2015.
Process for Reader Feedback
The publication's standard corrections column also noted other recently amended articles, including one concerning former US President Donald Trump's activity on social media. The Guardian reiterated its process for addressing editorial complaints, directing readers to contact the newspaper's readers' editor.
Complaints and correction requests can be sent via email to guardian.readers@theguardian.com, by post to the Readers' editor in London, or by leaving a voicemail on +44 (0) 20 3353 4736.
These corrections underscore the importance of meticulous fact-checking, particularly when documenting sensitive historical events such as the Holocaust, and the ongoing responsibility of news organisations to transparently correct the record.
