October 11, 2015
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has expressed its concern about the increasing use of offensive Holocaust comparisons and analogies in political discourse. This follows American Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s remarks during a CNN interview in which he was asked, “Just clarify, if there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would six million Jews have been slaughtered?” Mr Carson responded, “I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed.” In his new book, A More Perfect Union, Mr Carson writes, “through a combination of removing guns and disseminating propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance”.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“”It is simply unacceptable to use Holocaust analogies and references to score political points. Such inappropriate comparisons to present situations add nothing to the debate and cheapen the suffering experienced by Jews at the hands of the Third Reich. Yes, gun control is a legitimate issue that should be discussed, but that does not justify the invoking of the Nazi regime or drawing parallels with the horrific plight of the Jews during that period. Ben Carson’s comments that if the Jews in Nazi Germany had guns they would have been able to stop Hitler’s program of terror and genocide is historically wrong and misleading. Even if German Jewish citizens were armed, they would have been no match for the huge Nazi army and military machinery of death. Linking gun control to the Holocaust and claiming that it contributed to the extermination of six million Jews misrepresents the facts and does a great disservice to the proper understanding and study of humanity’s darkest chapter. We call on Ben Carson and other public figures, here in Australia and abroad, to choose their words carefully and to stop exploiting the Holocaust. Such disturbing analogies trivialize the terror and unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust and needlessly cause further pain to Holocaust survivors and to their families.”
For more information, please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272-5677