End the Misuse of Holocaust History
It is more than accuracy that is under assault. It is the ability to identify contemporary culprits, and see clearly the damage that they are doing.
With apologies to Mel Brooks, it’s springtime for Hitler and Nazi Germany.
Comparisons to the Third Reich are blooming. History is being instrumentalized and mangled. More than wrong, it is dangerous.
The past week alone brought three examples. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has been universally ridiculed for saying that Assad was worse than Hitler because even Hitler did not use chemical weapons on “his own people.” A sympathetic reporter tried to throw him a lifeline. Ignoring it, he dug himself in deeper with a reference to “Holocaust centers” and the assertion that Hitler did not strike
