Spicer sorry for Holocaust gaffe
Carol Lee
Sean Spicer apologises for claiming Hitler “didn’t gas his own people,” despite millions of Jews dying in gas chambers.
Spicer sorry over Holocaust comments
Sean Spicer apologizes for saying Hitler never used chemical weapons
White House press secretary Sean Spicer caused outrage after comparing Bashar Assad with Adolf Hitler, saying Hitler “didn’t gas his own people.” Picture: AP.
The infamous entrance to Auschwitz with the inscription “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) . Picture: AP.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has been forced to apologise for “insensitive” remarks after claiming Adolf Hitler didn’t “gas his own people”, despite millions of Jews dying in Nazi gas chambers.
Mr Spicer told CNN he mistakenly used “an inappropriate, insensitive reference to the Holocaust,” when comparing Hitler favourably with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
He said there was no comparison and “it was a mistake to do that.” He adds, “It was my blunder.”
The blunder came when he argued Assad had committed worse atrocities than Hitler, saying even the man whose genocidal regimen instigated a world war and killed millions of people didn’t use chemical weapons.
“We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II,” Spicer told reporters. “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”
Mr. Spicer was referring to the suspected chemical attack in Syria on April 4 that killed at least 85 people. The US has concluded the Syrian military used banned sarin gas in the assault, and the U. military launched nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles against a Syrian air base Friday.
Asked later if he wanted to clarify his statement, given that Hitler and the German Nazi state killed millions of European Jews in gas chambers, Mr. Spicer said: “He was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.”
“He brought them into the Holocaust centre,” Mr. Spicer said, in an apparent reference to the death camps where millions, including most of Germany’s Jewish population, were killed.
Mr. Assad, Mr. Spicer said, used chemical weapons “in towns, dropped them down — into the middle of towns.”
Soon after the end of Tuesday’s news briefing, Mr. Spicer released another statement further clarifying his earlier remarks.
“In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust,” he wrote. “I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using aeroplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centres. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable.”
Child prisoners at Auschwitz.
Later Tuesday, a second Trump administration official cited World War II to emphasise the singular horror of the Syrian chemical weapons attack and justify the US military response.
“Even in World War II, chemical weapons were not used on battlefields, even in the Korean War they were not used on battlefields,” Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, called on President Donald Trump to fire Mr. Spicer over his comments.
Mr. Goldstein said in a statement that Mr. Spicer’s remarks amounted to denying the Holocaust. “Spicer’s statement is the most evil slur upon a group of people we have ever heard from a White House press secretary,” Mr. Goldstein said.
Mr. Goldstein has in the past criticised the Trump White House for distributing a Holocaust remembrance statement that didn’t mention Jews and has argued Mr. Trump didn’t move quickly enough to condemn anti-Semitic threats and vandalism in cities across the country.
The Wall St Journal
78 COMMENTS
Fredrick 7 HOURS AGO
Please have the courage to publish my letter:
Let’s have an informed discussion about this contentious issue, without legal constraints, and then perhaps we will come to an agreement, which will confirm the title of a classic written in 1976 by Prof Arthur Butz: The Hoax of the Twentieth Century.THE CASE AGAINST THE PRESUMED EXTERMINATION OF EUROPEAN JEWRY
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Fredrick6 HOURS AGO
Thanks editorial team – had I not posted this letter a second time with the addition of the first sentence, then I could have imagined all sorts of things going on within your department, perhaps even developed a persecution complex. Now, as the Americans put it, you done good!
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Jim3 HOURS AGO
@Fredrick The title of this work echoes that of the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg’s notorious anti-Semitic tract “The Myth of the Twentieth Century”. Now why do you think that would be, Frederick?
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Rohan B2 HOURS AGO
@Fredrick Im not sure what youre on about mate…
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Argus1 HOUR AGO
@Fredrick I have seen enough evidence that the systemically managed extermination camps including Auschwitz and Treblinka, and the meticulous records maintained by the Einsatzgruppen including the cinematic record of the murder by machine gun of of over 30,000 Jews at Babi Yar to be quite convinced of the murderous intent of the Nazis in Germany.
Unfortunately for the Jewish propagandists, the Germans also murdered homosexuals, Slavs and gypsies and werealso responsible for the deaths of over 3 million Russian prisoners of war. It should be realised that it was all “untermenschen” who were to be exterminated. unlike Jewish propagandists, the other victims however have not made an art form out of victimhood at the hands of the Nazisand use it for propaganda purposes to justify their appalling treatment of Palestinians.
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Anna56 MINUTES AGO
@Fredrick what the hell are you on about?
You want to talk about Holocaust and you think it was fake?
You dare do that on Passover?
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Fredrick1 HOUR AGO
@Anna @Fredrick; Anna, what makes you conclude, and demand, that this historical event should receive special treatment above all those other criminal war extermination events?
Arthur Butz points out that there are two Holocaust narratives, the official narrative sanctioned by law,claims homicidal gassings occurred, and the Revisionist narrative, claims there is no evidence of homicidal gassings.
In many western democratic countries there are specific laws that threaten imprisonment, if anyone dares to question the conflicting narratives, such as the six million deaths, the various methods of alleged killings, etc. Remember the soap and lampshade stories?
Do you know any other historical events where a questioning of conflicting narratives leads to prison sentences, or heavy fines, or both?
Remember, Syria and its unfolding tragedy reminds us not really of matters Holocaust but rather of Iraq, and where former President George W Bush – before he destroyed the country – accused Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction, which later was proven to be a lie; much like the Kuwaiti incident and the allegation that the Iraqi soldiers were “ripping babies out of incubators”, which was also a lie.
Anna, the critical mind will, in a civilized way, always question important public matters and search for the truth – especially when the matter emanates from the office of the President of the United States of America. What has this exchange of ideas to do with Passover? Please enlighten me – I am always willing to learn.
