During the Nazi era,Adolf Hitler was frequently compared to previous leaders includingNapoleon,Philip of Macedon, andNebuchadnezzar. The comparers wanted to make Hitler understandable to their audiences by comparing him to known leaders, but according to historianGavriel Rosenfeld the comparisons obscured Hitler'sradical evil. When Hitler becameChancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, Hitler was compared to Napoleon byThe Brooklyn Eagle andMiddletown Times. TheNight of Long Knives was compared at the time to such events as theSt. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, a 1572 massacre ofFrench Huguenots byCatholics. The comparison between Hitler and Philip of Macedon was used by some American journalists who advocated the United States'sentry into World War II. Others felt that this did not go far enough and used other metaphors such as Nebuchadnezzar andTamerlane: Harold Denny ofThe New York Times visitedBuchenwald[2] in 1945,[3] writing "Tamerlane built his mountain of skulls ... Hitler’s horrors … dwarf all previous crimes".[2] In a public radio broadcast of 24 August 1941,Winston Churchill compared Nazi war crimes in the Soviet Union to theMongol invasion of Europe, saying "There has never [since] been methodical, merciless butchery on such a scale, or approaching such a scale."[4]
Nazism has come to be a metaphor for evil, according to academic Brian Johnson, leading to Nazi comparisons.[5] TheAnti-Defamation League suggested that the Nazi era had become the "most available historical event illustrating right versus wrong."[6] Rosenfeld noted that Hitler "gained immortality as a historical analogy" and that he became:[2]
... a hegemonic historical analogy. He did not so much join the ranks of earlier historical symbols of evil as render them unusable. Indeed, perhaps because Western observers became convinced that wartime analogies had underestimated the Nazi dictator’s radicalism, they began to employ Hitler as the baseline for evaluating all new threats.
According to theACLU, calling someone a Nazi is protectedfree speech under theFirst Amendment to theUnited States Constitution.[7] In 2008, British radio presenterJon Gaunt called a guest a Nazi on a BBC radio, for which he was fired. AnOfcom complaint againstTalkSport, his employer, was upheld by the United KingdomHigh Court of Justice in 2010.[8][9] In 2019, the UkrainianS14 group won adefamation suit againstHromadske, a newspaper which had labeled them neo-Nazi, despite such a characterization having been used byReuters andThe Washington Post.[10] In Israel, a law was proposed in 2014 that would make it illegal to call someone a Nazi or use symbols associated with the Holocaust (such as striped clothing oryellow stars), in order to respect Holocaust survivors.[11]
Reductio ad Hitlerum, first coined in 1951 byLeo Strauss, is alogical fallacy which discounts an idea because it was promoted by Hitler or Nazis.[12]Godwin's law, coined in 1990 byMike Godwin, asserts that "as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1".[13] A related convention is "Whoever mentions Hitler first, loses the argument."[6][14][15] However, Godwin has said that not all Nazi comparisons are invalid.[16][17]
Several individuals and groups have drawn direct comparisons betweenanimal cruelty andthe Holocaust. The analogies began soon after the end ofWorld War II, when literary figures, many of themHolocaust survivors, Jewish or both, began to draw parallels between the treatment of animals by humans and the treatments of prisoners in Nazi death camps.The Letter Writer, a 1968 short story byIsaac Bashevis Singer, is a literary work often cited as the seminal use of the analogy.[18] The comparison has been criticized by organizations that campaign againstantisemitism, including theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) and theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum, particularly since 2006, whenPETA began to make heavy use of the analogy as part of campaigns for improved animal welfare.[19]
Public health measures adopted since World War II in order to reduce smoking have been compared withanti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany, which is considered by proponents of anti-smoking measures to be a fallaciousreductio ad Hitlerum which often exaggerates how much the Nazis actually opposed smoking.[20][21] Historian of scienceRobert N. Proctor speculates that Nazi associations "forestall[ed] the development of effective anti-tobacco measures by several decades".[22]
According to an editorial byArthur Caplan inScience,bioethics questions including "stem cell research, end-of-life care, the conduct of clinical trials in poor nations, abortion, embryo research, animal experimentation, genetic testing, or human experimentation involving vulnerable populations" are often compared toNazi eugenics andNazi human experimentation. According to Caplan, the Nazi analogy has the potential to shut down debate and its capricious use is unethical.[23] Similar arguments were made byNat Hentoff in 1988, writing forThe Hastings Center Report.[24]
Analogies between China and Nazi Germany have also been drawn by Australian politicianAndrew Hastie.[25] However,Edward Luce considers China–Nazi comparisons a form ofanti-Chinese sentiment and he also considers them a potentiallyself-fulfilling prophecy.[26] In July 2020, British Jewish leaderMarie van der Zyl said that there were "similarities" between thetreatment of the Uyghurs in China and the crimes which were committed by Nazi Germany.[27] In 2020, Axel Dessein wrote that the Chinese Communist Party was better described as lowercase "national socialist"—in the vein of the Nazi Party and theCzech National Social Party—thancommunist, due to "its marriage between socialist means and national ends".[28]
Pro-Beijing counter-protesters used the Chinese national flag as their main symbol. Several Hong Kong and mainland celebrities declared themselves "flag protectors" after protesters threw several Chinese flags into the sea in August 2019.[35]
Protestor opposing the2018 state visit of Donald Trump to the United Kingdom
While qualified comparisons betweenHitler's rise to power and the victory ofDonald Trump in the2016 United States presidential election have been made by some historians,[36][37]NeverTrump Republicans, and Democrats,[38] the comparison is opposed by other scholars and commentators who cite reasons such as Trump lacking a coherent ideology, not supporting a dictatorship or political violence, and his rejection of interventionist foreign policy.[39] According to Rosenfeld's research, the frequency of comparisons between Trump and Hitler in the media peaked in 2017 and the number of internet searches for "Trump and Hitler" has also decreased from a high point between mid-2015 and mid-2017.[40]
Comparisons betweenIsrael andNazi Germany occur frequently in the political discourse ofanti-Zionism.[52][53] Given the legacy ofthe Holocaust, the nature of these comparisons, and particularly whether they constituteantisemitism, is a matter of ongoing debate.
Comparisons between Israel andNazism have been made by academics,[54] politicians[55] and public figures, both Jewish and not,[56] since before the formation of Israel.[57][58][59] Some scholars suggest these comparisons can be rhetorical tools without specific antisemitic intent, or that they can be an informed and necessary response to Israeli policy or actions.[60][61] Others state such comparisons lack historical and moral equivalence, risk inciting Jew hatred, and may serve as a form of Holocaust inversion,[52]Holocaust denial or minimization.[62][63][a]
During the 20th century, a wide variety of political figures and governments, especially those onthe left, have invoked comparisons between Israel orZionism and Nazism.[68] In the 21st century, politicians who have made such comparisons include Turkish presidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan,[69] Brazilian presidentLula da Silva,[70] Venezuelan presidentHugo Chávez,[71] Colombian PresidentGustavo Petro,[72] and others.[73]
A protestor opposinggay marriage in Boston in 2007 makes a comparison between the contemporary United States ("Today") and Nazi Germany.
TheAIDS–Holocaust metaphor can be controversial.[74] WhileSusan Sontag said that "It's wrong to compare a situation in which there was real culpability to one in which there is none", it is also the case that homophobic views resulted in dismissal of the suggestion of research and treatment being supported, severely exacerbating the epidemic.[75][76]
The term "second Holocaust" is used in reference to perceived threats to the State of Israel, Jews, and Jewish life.[87] In 2018, Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu said "Iran wants a second Holocaust" and to "destroy another six million plus Jews", after his Iranian counterpart described Israel as a "malignant cancerous tumor".[88] In 2019, Israeli education ministerRafi Peretz comparedJewish intermarriage to a "second Holocaust".[89]
^The IHRAWorking Definition of Antisemitism specifically includes such comparisons in a set of 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism. There is ongoing debate about whether the examples constitute part of the definition or were solely used "[t]o guide IHRA in its work".[64][65][66] Critics of the definition say that it may define legitimate criticisms of Israel as antisemitic, and has been used to censor pro-Palestinian activism.[67]
Various historians and other authors have carried out acomparison of Nazism and Stalinism, with particular consideration to the similarities and differences between the two ideologies andpolitical systems, the relationship between the tworegimes, and why both came to prominence simultaneously. During the 20th century, comparisons ofNazism andStalinism were made ontotalitarianism,ideology, andpersonality cult. Both regimes were seen in contrast to theliberal democratic Western world, emphasising the similarities between the two.[90]
Political scientistsHannah Arendt,Zbigniew Brzezinski, andCarl Joachim Friedrich, and historianRobert Conquest were prominent advocates of applying the totalitarian concept to compare Nazism and Stalinism.[91][92] HistoriansSheila Fitzpatrick andMichael Geyer highlight the differences between Nazism and Stalinism, with Geyer saying that the idea of comparing the two regimes has achieved limited success.[93] HistorianHenry Rousso defends the work of Friedrichet al., while saying that the concept is both useful and descriptive rather than analytical, and positing that the regimes described as totalitarian do not have a common origin and did not arise in similar ways.[94] Historians Philippe Burrin andNicolas Werth take a middle position between one making the leader seem all-powerful and the other making him seem like a weakdictator.[94] HistoriansIan Kershaw andMoshe Lewin take a longer historical perspective and regard Nazism and Stalinism not as examples of a new type of society but as historical anomalies and dispute whether grouping them as totalitarian is useful.[95]
Other historians and political scientists have made comparisons between Nazism and Stalinism as part of their work. The comparison has long provoked political controversy,[96][97] and in the 1980s led to the historians' dispute within Germany known as theHistorikerstreit.[98]
In 2014, venture capitalist and billionaireThomas Perkins wrote toThe Wall Street Journal to compare what he called "the progressive war on the Americanone percent" to what Jews faced duringKristallnacht. According to Jordan Weissmann, writing inThe Atlantic, this is "the worst historical analogy you will read for a long, long time".[107][108] Perkins was also criticized on Twitter, withThe New York Times journalistSteven Greenhouse writing, "As someone who lost numerous relatives to the Nazi gas chambers, I find statements like this revolting & inexplicable".[107] Perkins later apologized for the comparison.[109]
In 2017, the German journalistPieke Biermann argued that Nazi comparisons were undergoing a process which was akin toinflation due to the increased and inappropriate use of them.[111]
Amanda Moorghen, a researcher for theEnglish Speaking Union, said that frequently, Nazi comparisons were not persuasive: "Wielding accusations offascism as an insult doesn't help to get your audience on side - instead, you raise the stakes of the debate, forcing a polarisation between 'good' and 'evil' into a discussion that may have reasonable positions on both sides." Instead, she recommended criticizing the opponent's argument directly.[6]
^Hentoff, Nat; Callahan, Daniel; Crum, Gary E.; Cohen, Cynthia B. (1988). "Contested Terrain: The Nazi Analogy in Bioethics".The Hastings Center Report.18 (4):29–33.doi:10.2307/3563233.ISSN0093-0334.JSTOR3563233.PMID3065286.
^Dessein, Axel (2020). "National Socialism in China: Rejuvenating the Nation, Socialist Modernisation, and the Mistaken Comparison with Nazism".Monde Chinois (in French).62 (2):72–87.doi:10.3917/mochi.062.0072.ISSN1767-3755.
^Droumpouki, Anna Maria (2013). "Trivialization of World War Two and Shoah in Greece: Uses, Misuses and Analogies in Light of the Current Debt Crisis".Journal of Contemporary European Studies.21 (2): 191.doi:10.1080/14782804.2013.815463.S2CID145093418.
^Druks, Herbert (2001).The Uncertain Alliance: The U.S. and Israel from Kennedy to the Peace Process. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 50–51.ISBN9780313314247.
^Dow Jones Newswires reported that, on August 10, while giving a speech in eastern Venezuela, Chávez said Venezuelans are "making a call to world leaders, for the love of God, let's halt this crazyfascist aggression against innocent people. Are we human or what are we?... I feel indignation for Israel's assault on the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people. They dropped bombs on shelters. ... It's a Holocaust that is occurring there." -Venezuela President Asks International Leaders To Halt Israeli Offensive.[permanent dead link] Dow Jones Newswire,Morning Star, August 10, 2006.
^Stein, Arlene (2016). "Whose Memories? Whose Victimhood? Contests for the Holocaust Frame in Recent Social Movement Discourse".Sociological Perspectives.41 (3): 522.doi:10.2307/1389562.JSTOR1389562.S2CID147317075.
^Fleck, Christian; Hess, Andreas; Lyon, E. Stina, eds. (2008).Intellectuals and their publics: perspectives from the social sciences. Ashgate. p. 112.ISBN978-0-7546-7540-2.
^Lévy, Daniel; Sznaider, Natan (2005).The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age. Temple University Press. p. 76.ISBN978-1-59213-276-8.
Adam, Heribert (1997). "The Nazis of Africa: Apartheid as Holocaust?".Canadian Journal of African Studies.31 (2):364–370.doi:10.2307/486185.ISSN0008-3968.JSTOR486185.
Bourdon, Jerome (August 2015). "Outrageous, inescapable? Debating historical analogies in the coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict".Discourse & Communication.9 (4):407–422.doi:10.1177/1750481315576835.ISSN1750-4813.S2CID145056540.
Smeekes, Anouk; Van Acker, Kaat; Verkuyten, Maykel; Vanbeselaere, Norbert (14 November 2013). "The legacy of Nazism: Historical analogies and support for the far right".Social Influence.9 (4):300–317.doi:10.1080/15534510.2013.855141.S2CID145131946.
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