(CNN) As we mark this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I am terribly saddened by efforts to minimize the atrocities and manipulate the memory of the Holocaust for political gain here at home.
Seventy-seven years after the end of the Second World War, we have witnessed a disturbing surge in the politicization of Holocaust imagery that has distorted and warped its memory in disgraceful ways, often tied to debates about the Covid-19 pandemic or Israeli policy.
These sorts of comparisons to Nazi Germany are an egregious affront to Holocaust survivors.In May, a group calling itself “Goy Power” showed up at a pro-Israel rally in a van carrying the message “Hitler was Right.”
In November, attendees wore yellow stars to a hearing of the Kansas state legislature to discuss Covid-19 policies in the workplace.
This was followed by a host on Fox News going so far as to compare Dr. Anthony Fauci with Josef Mengele, the sadistic SS “physician” known as the “angel of death.”
“The incidents are an affront to the memory of Holocaust victims and to all who espouse to support human rights.”
In 2019, New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared border facilities to “concentration camps.”
Earlier this month, Ohio GOP Rep. Warren Davidson compared the Covid-19 vaccination policies in Washington, DC, to the Nazi regime on Twitter. He later apologized.
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These outrageous comparisons, which were made to score cheap political points, are irrational, irresponsible, callous and hurtful.
They deserve swift condemnation from all our elected officials from both political parties.
Using outlandish, irresponsible words and images to inflame people and for political gain is horrible; it inflicts yet more pain on the survivors who have already suffered so much …
