Partisan mudslinging has reached a new low as politicians label President Trump “Hitler,” and his supporters “Nazis.” In doing so, they cheapen the massive horrors and unimaginable suffering of the Holocaust.
It’s one thing to dislike Trump, to call out federal funding cuts, and to be disturbed by the heavy-handed tactics of ICE when arresting illegal immigrants before deportation. But to equate that with the actions of an evil madman betrays a shocking and sad ignorance of history.
Here’s what Adolf Hitler did: He and his subordinates orchestrated the genocide of six million Jews and millions of other “socially undesirable” victims. Many were forced to line up to be shot, their bodies falling into mass graves. Men, women and children were sent to concentration camps, where they were either dispatched to the gas chamber upon arrival, or assigned to forced labor. Soulless brutality reigned in the camps, the ghettos, the streets.
Camp ovens worked ceaselessly to burn the dead. Diabolical medical experiments were carried out without anesthesia, deliberately infecting victims with diseases, subjecting them to freezing temperatures, disfiguring operations and worse. The camps were rife with disease, and footage of victims after the camps were liberated show walking skeletons, the result of mass starvation. This is hardly an exhaustive list of the atrocities visited upon millions.
The Holocaust was a nightmare come to life, an incarnation of evil that should never be allowed to repeat itself. Turning it into a cheap conceit to blast a political opponent is both obtuse and shameful, and only serves to bolster those who would downplay the terrors of Hitler’s reign.
“Hitler” and “Nazis” aren’t the only labels favored by those who skimmed the Cliff-Notes account of WWII. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been framed as “secret police” or “Gestapo” operatives. The terms make for dramatic soundbites and earn progressive clout, but are without substance.
The Gestapo, or secret police, were often members of the Einsatzgruppen, essentially mobile killing squads who carried out the murders of Jews, Romani and communists in Eastern Europe. Their mass shootings, aka “death by bullets” was a key component of the “Final Solution.”
They were not arresting people for being in the country illegally. They did not advise people to self-deport, nor did they announce that they were coming to a municipality to deport illegal immigrants. Comparing the two is puerile, even by politicians’ standards.
The election of Donald Trump sparked a lot of anger among those who’ve loathed the man since 2016 and longed for continued reign in the White House. That didn’t happen, and now Democrats are unleashing their fury over losing last November on those who carried Trump to victory, as well as the man himself.
What better way to claim an ersatz high ground by smearing the opposition as in league with evil?
Auschwitz. Bergen-Belsen. Dachau. Treblinka. These carry the weight of pain, loss, and horror borne by millions. “Never Again” loses its meaning when the hell that was the Holocaust and its agents are belittled for political gain.
