FEBRUARY 2 • 2023 | 5

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documents from his Mar-
a-Lago residence were “the 
Gestopo” (as he spelled it).
Before the news cycle 
was done, a former Israeli 
attorney general called 
proposed judicial reforms in 
that country “a pogrom” and 
New York Times columnist 
Thomas Friedman described 
them as a “putsch,” the term 
commonly associated with 
Adolf Hitler’s failed coup 
attempt in 1923, known as 
the Beer Hall Putsch.
If such outbursts were 
an aberration, they would 
be bad enough. But there 
have been numerous such 
remarks flung about in public 
discourse in recent months.
Filmmaker Ken Burns, 
speaking on CNN about 
Holocaust-era immigration 
policies, said the decision 
by Florida’s governor to fly 
50 migrants to Martha’s 
Vineyard was “straight out of 
the authoritarian playbook.”
Not to be outdone, the 
Republican nominee for 
governor of Illinois, Darren 
Bailey, declared that “the 
attempted extermination of 
the Jews of World War II 
doesn’t even compare on a 
shadow of the life that has 
been lost with abortion.”
And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 
said last year that America’s 
COVID vaccination policies 
are even more dangerous 
than Hitler’s policies, since 
in Nazi Germany there was 
(he claimed) the option of 
“hiding in an attic, like Anne 
Frank did.”
At least Kennedy retract-
ed and apologized for his 
comment. That’s rare among 
those who use Nazi analogies 
as political weapons.
Five years ago, the United 
States Holocaust Memorial 
Museum announced that it 

“unequivocally rejects efforts 
to create analogies between 
the Holocaust and other 
events, whether historical or 
contemporary.”
It issued that statement 
after one of its staff histo-
rians, Rebecca Erbelding, 
expressed support for the 
claim by Rep. Alexandra 
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) that 
U.S. immigration facilities 
resemble “concentration 
camps.” Erbelding’s state-
ment was made “in a per-
sonal capacity” and “does 
not reflect the position of 
the Museum,” the museum 
emphasized.
Given the sudden pro-
liferation of comparable 
statements by public figures 
at home and abroad, this 
might be a good time for the 
Holocaust Museum to pub-
licly reiterate its opposition to 
Nazi analogies.
Such analogies both exag-
gerate contemporary contro-
versies and minimize what 
the Nazis did. Policies con-
cerning issues such as immi-
gration, abortion or COVID 
restrictions naturally generate 
intense debate. But it should 
be possible to discuss even 
the most sensitive issues 
without resorting to absurd 
and insulting historical com-
parisons. Abortion is not 
another Holocaust. America’s 
immigration facilities do not 
resemble Dachau. And Mar-
a-Lago is not on the way to 
Auschwitz. 

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding direc-

tor of the David S. Wyman Institute 

for Holocaust Studies and author of 

more than 20 books about Jewish 

history and the Holocaust. His lat-

est is America and the Holocaust: 

A Documentary History, published 

by the Jewish Publication Society & 

University of Nebraska Press. This 

piece first appeared in the Jewish 

Journal.

Yiddish Limerick

Correction
In “Home-Grown Wine” (Jan. 26, page 40), the name of 
Apollo Braganini’s great-grandfather was incorrect. His 
correct name is Mariano Meconi.

Tu b’Shevat

On Rosh Hashanah of the tree
Ich plant ain boyml, tzvay, or three.
Then mit geduld ich vart a bissl,
Un hob some frucht, a gantze shissl.
Der frucht iz zaftik, un it’s free.

Ich- I
ain boyml — one small tree
tzvay — two
mit geduld — with patience
ich vart a bissl — I wait a little
Un hob — and have
frucht — fruit
a gantze shissl — a whole bowl
Der frucht iz zaftik — the fruit is juicy

— Rachel Kapen