Winona Ryder has revealed that she has been haunted by horrors of the Holocaust since her childhood after her father’s family were killed in the atrocity.
The actress, 48, discussed how as a little girl she would sleep in the doorway of her parent’s bedroom in fear that they too would be taken away.
Speaking about her anxieties, she told the Mirror: ‘I think it came from overhearing stories of what happened in the camps. I was terrified of being separated from them.
Candid: Winona Ryder, 48, has revealed that she has been haunted by horrors of the Holocaust since her childhood after her father’s family were killed in the atrocity
‘In World War II, my mum’s father died fighting the Nazis in the Pacific and, on my father’s side, family members died in the camps.
‘I am grateful my parents told me the truth, though they had to pick the right age to tell me because it is so horrific.
‘But I used to go to the library and look at books about it. I couldn’t stop turning the pages and thought, “This is horrible, why am I doing this?” Then I realised maybe I was looking for my family, for someone I recognised.’
It comes as Winona is set to appear in Sky Atlantic’s The Plot Against America which tells the story of a working-class Jewish family living in an alternate 1940s New Jersey.
Moving: It comes as Winona is set to appear in Sky Atlantic’s The Plot Against America which tells the story of a working-class Jewish family living in an alternate 1940s New Jersey
Last month, Mel Gibson was forced to refute claims by Winona that the Oscar-winning actor and director made anti-Semitic and bigoted remarks and accusing the Stranger Things star of lying about their interactions.
‘This is 100% untrue,’ a representative for Gibson said in a statement to TooFab. ‘She lied about it over a decade ago, when she talked to the press, and she’s lying about it now.
‘Also, she lied about him trying to apologise to her back then. He did reach out to her, many years ago, to confront her about her lies and she refused to address it with him.’
Hitting back: Last month, Mel Gibson was forced to refute claims by Winona that the Oscar-winning actor and director made anti-Semitic and bigoted remarks and accusing the Stranger Things star of lying about their interactions
Winona claims the Braveheart star, 64, asked her if she was an ‘oven-dodger’, an apparent reference to her Jewish faith, in an interview with the Sunday Times over the weekend.
‘We were at a crowded party with one of my good friends, and Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar,’ began the Black Swan actress.
Winona, whose birth name is Winona Laura Horowitz, said when the issue of her faith came up, Mel asked, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?’
The slur is a reference to the method by which Jewish bodies were incinerated during the Holocaust.
Winona also claimed that at the same party, the Passion of the Christ director asked her friend, who was gay, ‘Oh, wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’
Controversy: Winona, whose birth name is Winona Laura Horowitz, said when the issue of her faith came up, Mel asked, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?’ (Mel pictured in Braveheart 1995)
The Little Woman actress had previously told a similar story to GQ back in 2010.
‘I was at one of those big Hollywood parties. And [Gibson] was really drunk,’ Winona, told the magazine at the time.
‘I was with my friend, who’s gay. [Gibson] made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about “oven dodgers,” but I didn’t get it.’
‘It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, “He’s anti-Semitic and he’s homophobic.” No one believed me!’
Gibson’s long track record of racist and homophobic outbursts is now well-documented however.
The Oscar-winning star was famously arrested in California in 2006 after he was caught drink driving.
Past troubles: In 2010, Gibson was heard hurling racial abuse at his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in a recording made by the Russian singer
The devout Roman Catholic was alleged to have told the police officer that stopped him: ‘F****** Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.’
He is then said to have challenged officer James Mee: ‘Are you a Jew?’
In 2010, Gibson was heard hurling racial abuse at his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in a recording made by the Russian singer.
He was heard screaming: ‘You look like a f****** pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n******, it will be your fault.’
He pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor battery against Grigorieva in 2011 and served no jail time.
In 1991, the Mad Max star made comments to Spanish newspaper El Pais that many construed as homophobic in nature.
He said: ‘With this look, who’s going to think I’m gay? Do I look like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?’
Mad Mel: The devout Roman Catholic was alleged to have told the police officer that stopped him for drink driving in 2006: ‘F****** Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world’