On May 15, an Alaska state legislator told a local news outlet that Adolf Hitler wasn’t a white supremacist and his genocidal actions were out of fear of an eventual Jewish state.
In an email to his colleagues, State Rep. Ben Carpenter (R) had voiced his displeasure with the rules requiring the legislators to wear stickers certifying they had tested negative for COVID-19. He compared the stickers to yellow Stars of David. After Carpenter’s fellow legislators criticized him for making a Holocaust comparison, Carpenter told the Anchorage Daily News that he never intended to offend anyone and that he doesn’t have a problem with the Jewish community.
“Can we even say it is totally out of the realm of possibility that COVID-19 patients will be rounded up and taken somewhere?” Carpenter said. “People want to say Hitler was a white supremacist. No. He was fearful of the Jewish nation, and that drove him into some unfathomable atrocities.”
Jewish groups condemned Carpenter’s remarks.
“These comments from Rep. Carpenter are a loathsome display of ignorance and anti-Semitism,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted. “To evoke Nazi Germany and Hitler and make comparisons to #COVID19 protocols is unacceptable and unbecoming of any elected official. An apology is needed immediately.”
These comments from Rep. Carpenter are a loathsome display of ignorance and antisemitism.
To evoke Nazi Germany and Hitler and make comparisons to #COVID19 protocols is unacceptable and unbecoming of any elected official. An apology is needed immediately. https://t.co/9fegcxust5— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) May 17, 2020
American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris similarly tweeted, “Seriously? Ignorant. Repugnant. Outrageous.”
Ugh, here we go again.
Alaska lawmaker latest to compare #COVID response to Nazi era.
Invokes Star of David badge Jews were forced to wear by Nazis!
Says Hitler wasn’t white supremacist, but feared Jews!
Seriously?
Ignorant. Repugnant. Outrageous. https://t.co/yMvhq0NGuo
— David Harris (@DavidHarrisNY) May 17, 2020
The Simon Wiesenthal Center also tweeted, “Protesters/opponents of US governors’ pandemic lockdown policies must denounce, remove anyone using Swastikas, allusions to Hitler+Nazis from their ranks. When elected official utilize such tactics they must be denounced by Democrats and Republicans alike.”
Protesters/opponents of US governors’ pandemic lockdown policies must denounce, remove anyone using Swastikas, allusions to Hitler+Nazis from their ranks. When elected official utilize such tactics they must be denounced by democrats and republicans alike. https://t.co/6uOHwbHNAN
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) May 17, 2020
Carpenter later told the Anchorage Daily News in response to backlash from his Hitler comments, “Hitler wasn’t fearful of a Jewish nation because there was not one. The point was that it was fear that drove him. The attention of his fear was undesirables, including Jews. And the larger point is that people followed him.”
There have been various Nazi and Holocaust comparisons at protests against shelter-in-place orders, including signs comparing governors to Hitler. Rabbi Asher Lopatin, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee (AJC), wrote in a May 5 Detroit Free Press op-ed that such comparisons “trivialize the genocide of the Holocaust and the murder of millions of people of all backgrounds.”
“Let us argue about which experts we want to listen to and how we want to interpret their message,” he later added. “Let us do this while, at the same time, remembering that good citizenship and strong arguments can also be respectful and not used as a cynical tool to advance a political stand or trivialize the horrific history of our brothers and sisters.”
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