Farley

On Jan. 30, 1933, 90 years and a few days ago now, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. This represents a sobering milestone, as it was the first stop on the road to a second world war. Despite the enormous and unprecedented damage Nazism inflicted on the world, some American politicians and their followers now regularly and carelessly lob Nazi accusations at their opponents. An anniversary rhetoric versus reality check is surely in order for Hitler and Nazism.

“You voted for Obama/Trump/Biden (take your pick) like the sheep who elected Hitler!”

Hitler and Nazism were not, repeat not, elected. Like much of the rest of the world, early 1930s Germany was in desperate economic straits owing to the Great Depression. Thus the most extreme parties — the Nazi Party and the German Socialists and Communists — received the most votes in the 1932 German election. No one had achieved a majority, so it fell to the ceremonial German president, Paul von Hindenburg, to choose a chancellor from one of the two biggest winners. He chose Hitler and the Nazi Party. Hitler, Hindenburg felt, would be easy to control, and he was after all not a Communist. Hitler was appointed — not elected — to the top job in Germany 90 years ago.

“The covid vaccine/mask mandates are like Nazi Germany!”

Well, actually, no, they are not. Anti-vaccine individuals began wearing the yellow star, emblematic of the segregation and persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. The comparison is quite a stretch. Vaccine mandates were applied here and there in the United States, and some institutions and modes of public transport mandated masks, but you would search in vain for nationally coordinated punishment of resisters.

In Nazi Germany, the state mounted a steadily escalating campaign of exclusion against Jewish citizens that culminated in mass murder. It enacted laws mandating the sterilization (and eventually murder) of mentally and physically handicapped individuals. In fact, anyone who opposed the regime for any reason faced harsh punishment. You can only conclude that anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers are invoking Nazism for shock value, because their fate bears no relation to that of the victims of Nazi barbarism.

“Obama/Trump/Biden is Hitler!”

You’re kidding, right? Barack Obama’s opponents held protest signs comparing him to Hitler during the debates over the Affordable Care Act, a market-based solution to providing affordable health care to the uninsured. At one time, there was a financial penalty if you did not buy insurance. Uncooperative individuals in Hitler’s Germany faced immediate arrest and incarceration, likely in one of the first concentration camps.

Donald Trump has had charges of Nazism levied against him, too, at various times, but especially in one key respect, the comparison fails. The Trump administration was uninterested in an active role for the U.S. in the world, shunning cooperative arrangements and criticizing internationally-minded individuals. “America first” was Trump’s motto. By contrast, the Nazi Party clearly stated its desire for a war of conquest in Europe and launched that war in 1939, expanding it to most of the world via its alliance with Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.

Trump has been likened to Hitler also because he has associated with some openly anti-Semitic celebrities such as Kanye West. But the Nazi Party made anti-Semitism the pillar of its belief system from its first days in the early 1920s. The fourth point of its founding document reads, “Only those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. Accordingly, no Jew may be a member of the nation.” Once in power, the Nazis put their animus to work in a ruthless campaign that climaxed in the attempt to murder every Jew in Europe. No mainstream politician or party here has ever advocated anything remotely similar.

Joe Biden has not been spared accusations of Nazism. In September 2022, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia compared him to Hitler in several social media posts. Since Biden has not imprisoned any opponents, persecuted vulnerable minorities or launched a world war, the basis of her comparison is not entirely clear.

I recall seeing a protester’s sign years ago that perfectly expressed how I feel about the rampant misuse of Hitler and Nazism references: “HITLER is Hitler.” Nazism was a uniquely evil movement that has no equivalent in American history. I hope those here who like to play the Nazi card, hoping to dunk on their opponents, will reflect upon the reality of Nazism 90 years on and cease and desist. Even better, they could make a vow to themselves to MWMSA: “Make words mean something again.”