ADL Slams Nazi References in Politics

By JTA September 6, 2012

The Anti-Defamation League decried three recent reported Nazi analogies used in political debate, all by Democrats.

“Earlier today, South Carolina State Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian reportedly evoked Eva Braun when discussing Gov. Nikki Haley’s press briefing from a basement studio at the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” the ADL said in a statement Wednesday.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is in Charlotte, N.C., where the Democrats are having their party convention. The Republican Party has set up an opposition publicity operation in the Hall of Fame.

Harpootlian reportedly said, “She was down in the bunker a la Eva Braun.”

“This analogy to Eva Braun only serves to trivialize the Holocaust and is deeply offensive to Jews and other survivors, as well as those Americans who fought valiantly against the Nazis in World War II,” the ADL said in its statement.

The ADL noted that this week, the chairman of California Democrats compared Republicans to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, and a top Kansas Democrat reportedly did so as well.

“Politicians and their supporters and surrogates should stop invoking Hitler and trivializing the memory of the six million and millions of others who perished in the Holocaust,” the ADL said.

The ADL in the past also has singled out Republicans for using Holocaust and Nazi analogies. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) repeatedly has likened Democrats to Goebbels, inviting ADL outrage on at least three occasions.

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