Joan Rivers not apologizing for Holocaust joke

(CNN) -- Comedian Joan Rivers isn't about to apologize for a joke she made about the Holocaust.

Rivers, while appearing Monday on "Fashion Police" on E!, talked about the dress model Heidi Klum wore to the Academy Awards

"The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens," Rivers said.

The Anti-Defamation League called the remark "vulgar and hideous," but Rivers, who is Jewish, said it is her way of getting people to talk.

Joan Rivers' Holocaust joke criticized

2012: Joan Rivers on staying relevant

"It's a joke No. 1. No. 2 it is about the Holocaust. This is the way I remind people about the Holocaust. I do it through humor," she told HLN's "Showbiz Tonight."

When asked by host A.J. Hammer why she won't apologize, Rivers said, "For what?" She also said critics should focus on people who have anti-Semitic views and not someone whose late husband lost his entire family during the Holocaust.

"Of all people, Joan Rivers should know better," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, said in a statement posted on the organization's website. "There are certain things about the Holocaust that should be taboo. This is especially true for Jews, for whom the Holocaust is still a deeply painful memory."

The website said Foxman is a Holocaust survivor.