Three Things Every Jew Needs to Hear at the Seder This Year
10 min read
An important new film shows the role propaganda, disinformation and demagoguery played in stoking Hitler’s power, a much-needed lesson for today.
According to a recent Daily Mail poll, 21 percent of those under the age of 29 said Hitler had good ideas, compared with 16 percent of those between the ages of 30 and 49, seven percent for voters between 50 and 64 and just five percent for those over 65. This seems to be part of a trend with Gen Z being more sympathetic towards some of history's most evil individuals.
In the new film, Goebbels and the Fuhrer, the German director Joachim A. Lang hopes to convey how Hitler often seemed like a sympathetic, reasonable person.
In a recent Aish.com interview, Lang explained, “The point is to show Hitler not as a demon. It’s very comfortable to think of him as a demon; it’s easy to distance yourself from a demon.” Instead, Lang’s depiction of Hitler shows the German leader as a fundamental mercurial and deeply antisemitic person, but also as someone who was capable of coming across as charming and suave, thanks to his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
Lang hopes that by understanding how Goebbels was able to make Hitler’s odious worldview seem palatable and even attractive, viewers will be able to view propaganda critically, and to recognize the hallmarks of other demagogues and hate-inducing leaders today, a skill Gen Z needs to learn.
Prof. Thomas Weber worked as the historical consultant on Goebbels and the Fuhrer and explained that many of the propaganda methods Goebbels pioneered are still being used today.
Dr. Weber’s research on Hitler has shown him to be a fundamentally ordinary, unimpressive man before he amassed political aides like Goebbels who helped raise his profile. A decade before Hitler successfully seized power, Dr. Weber notes, “Hardly anyone believed that Hitler, if he were to have any political future, would be Germany’s leader.” One political observer described Hitler as not “a leader but a wonderful agitator” who would provide help “for someone even greater than him.” He was a “drifter and opportunist.” (Quoted in Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi by Thomas Weber. Basic Books: 2017) Dr. Weber has described Hitler’s fellow soldiers from World War I as viewing him as a “rear-echelon (explicative)”.
Yet Hitler was learning the power of propaganda to help change the way people viewed him and his antisemitic views. Hitler recast his lackluster military service as an embodiment of the forgotten German “every man.” Hitler reframed his deeply personal antisemitism (traced, many historians believe, to his mother’s untimely death while under the care of a Jewish doctor) as the supposed championing of common German people against rapacious Jewish elites.
Joseph Goebbels (on the dais) addressing a crowd in Berlin, February 1, 1935.
Key to this transformation was Joseph Goebbels, a writer with a Ph.D. in German literature. Goebbels was also a rabid antisemite and found his political home in Hitler’s Nazi party. By all accounts – and depicted with chilling creepiness in Goebbels and the Fuhrer, Goebbels (and his wife Magda) worshiped Hitler. Hitler grew to depend on Goebbels’ masterful propaganda talents and appointed him head of the party’s propaganda in 1930.
Goebbels honed his persuasive skills by editing the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff (“The Attack”) from 1927 until 1935. From 1928 onward, Goebbels was also a politician, representing the Nazi Party in Germany’s Reichstag. He experimented with different modes of persuasion, finding which resonated best with his audience. Biographer Peter Longerich notes he tried different styles of writing: “Satirical, fairy-tale, saga, conversational, or epistolary.” (Quoted in Goebbels: A Biography by Peter Longerich translated by Alan Bance, Jeremy Noakes, and Lesley Sharpe. Random House: 2015) He pioneered assigning derogatory nicknames to political opponents. His most popular victim was Dr. Bernhard Weiss, the deputy commissioner of police, whom Goebbels attacked over and over, assigning him the Jewish sounding nickname Isador Weiss. Dr. Weiss tried to defend himself against Goebbels’ attacks; he succeeded only in drawing more and more attention to them and fulfilling Goebbels’ goal of making him look ridiculous.
Another early propaganda win was cultivating the Nazi party’s private army of thugs, the Sturmabeilung, or Storm Troopers. Goebbels encouraged these young men who were looking for a fight to march in working class areas where many people embraced Communism, one of the Nazi party’s greatest enemies. Violent fights often broke out and Goebbels eagerly publicized the death of each Storm Trooper as a “martyr.” Goebbels’ promoted the song about Horst Wessel, one Nazi street fighter who was killed in a brawl in 1930, and it became the Nazi party anthem and later on the official National Anthem of Germany and Austria. His promotion of the Storm Troopers was so successful that numbers swelled from 450 in 1926 to 32,000 by the beginning of 1933.
Goebbels and the Fuhrer offers a fascinating view into Goebbels’ painstaking propaganda work. We see him rehearsing speeches over and over before he and Hitler deliver what sounds like natural, off the cuff passionate appeals. “The problem is that in most contemporary depictions of Hitler, we see only the last five or ten seconds of a speech,” director Lang observes. “It seems like he was always raging.” Yet that was not the case. “Speeches were two hours long; the shouting was only at the end.” Goebbels and the Fuhrer aims to show people “how persuasive” Hitler was and to alert people to heed history’s warnings and treat today’s demagogues and peddlers of hatred with the same skepticism we now apply to the Nazi era.
Historical consultant Prof. Thomas Weber identifies some of Goebbels’ key propaganda methods and warns that there are parallels with today’s populist and anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Goebbels was a master at simplifying complex situations in misleading ways and repeating his lies “time and time and time again.” Another facet of Goebbels’s propaganda, Dr. Weber notes, is that “it wasn’t important that the individual facts are correct; an item just has to be repeated in the service of a single truth.”
One of the most chilling aspects of Goebbels and the Fuhrer is how Goebbels’ propaganda machine - encompassing newspapers, speeches, radio broadcasts, newsreels and films - created a climate in which Germans were willing to give up everything to what Goebbels dubbed the “total war” effort.
Goebels and Hitler
This willingness to lie brings to mind slurs that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and others offer about Jews. For instance, the PA’s use of photos of Holocaust victims to say falsely that they were Palestinian Arabs murdered by Jews, or the BBC’s doubling down on its insistence that Israeli rockets destroyed a hospital in Gaza in October 2023, even after it became apparent that Hamas rockets were responsible for the strike. In these and numerous other cases where leaders have lied outright about Israel and Jews, they have faced little consequence, just as Goebbels predicted.
Dr. Weber observes that Goebbels also pioneered the type of political stunts that are still in use today. He “would interrupt the screening of a left-wing film,” for instance, “by releasing white mice in the theater - those sorts of stunts.” That stunt has been copied directly in recent weeks by anti-Israel protestors, for instance by those who released maggots and cockroaches in the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke there in July 2024.
“When someone accuses you of something - and it’s correct - you don’t deny it, you just accuse the other side of the exact same thing,” Dr. Weber adds. This tactic of Goebbels is particularly damaging, and widespread today. It leads people to “believe there is no right or wrong,” he notes. “You don’t have to deny anything; just say the other side is doing it too, or the other side is doing it worse.” When news about Nazis’ atrocities against Jews began to leak out during World War II, “Goebbels said don’t deny it, just find atrocities on the other side” to promote.
Goebbels and the Fuhrer follows the lives of both men from 1937 until their suicides in 1945, and depicts the increasingly effective ways they demonized Jews that echo in today’s climate.
Hitler railed against what he called the Uberschwemmung unseres Vaterlandes, the “flooding of the country” with immigrants, and blamed Jews for orchestrating this supposed “flood” of “inferior migrants”. He was also obsessed with the idea that “real” Germans would emigrate due to this dastardly supposedly Jewish-inspired (and completely fictional) “plot”. This outlandish theory echoes that of the “great replacement” slur, which accuses Jews of seeking to replace native-born Americans with inferior immigrants. This falsehood inspired the shooter who murdered 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.
The film shows Goebbels planning Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish riots of November 9-10, 1938. He used the murder of a German official in Paris by a Jewish teenager whose family had been expelled from Poland to stir up hatred. Kristallnacht fulfilled Goebbels’ goals: it rallied the German and Austrian people around a perceived threat. It was also a test of how far the Nazi party could go in demonizing and inciting violence against Jews.
Goebbels’ legacy lives on. A recent film review in the British paper The Guardian shows just how devalued Jews are today: “If you want to understand why Hamas murdered civilians, though (the documentary about Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack) One Day in October won’t help. Indeed, it does a good job of demonizing Gazans, first as testosterone-crazed Hamas killers, later as shameless civilian looters, asset-stripping the kibbutz while bodies lay in the street and the terrified living hid.” With every repetition that Jews are to blame for violence - even to blame for their own murders on October 7 - the lie that Jews are somehow uniquely bad and underserving becomes even more entrenched.
One of the most interesting episodes in Goebbels and the Fuhrer shows Goebbels at work on Nazi propaganda films, including the 1940 movie Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew). This infamous propaganda film was shot in the Jewish Ghettos of Warsaw and Lodz, and juxtaposed Jews and rats, accusing them of spreading diseases and depleting resources. The movie shows a graphic scene of a cow being slaughtered for food by Jews, and asserts that no German would be so cruel. It echoes - and perpetuates - stereotypes of Jews as uniquely sinister and malevolent: tropes that continue to this day.
Many of the ideas and justifications for killing Jews that Goebbels first proposed are still in use. Take Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Ph.D. thesis promotes a revisionist version of Holocaust history. He’s repeated over and over that Hitler was forced to kill Europe’s Jews because Jews were having such a negative effect on European society. This bizarre assertion, first devised by Goebbels nearly a century ago, is repeatedly tolerated by most observers, who ignore Abbas’ outrageous slander.
Historical advisor Dr. Thomas Weber notes that Hamas, too, is using ideas and tropes that Goebbels invented. “Hamas has been using specific (Nazi-inspired) images since October 7 that are similar” to the propaganda Goebbels pioneered. “Hamas’ disinformation since October 7 follows the pattern that Goebbels was using.”
Director Lang and Dr. Weber hope that viewers watching Goebbels and the Fuhrer will use the lessons they learn to recognize “disinformation and demagoguery” today. “We live in a world in which the conditions are ripe for demagoguery,” with political leaders and activists increasingly relying on propaganda instead of reasoned debate to persuade others, Lang notes. He observes that many of the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that are prevalent today are similar to those in the Nazi era.
Goebbels and the Fuhrer won the Audience Award at the 2024 Munich Film Festival. It’s now being distributed in the English-speaking world, and the team behind it hope it will help viewers in North America recognize some of the hallmarks of demagoguery and lies that target Jews and others we’re seeing today. In many areas around the world, “Hitler’s speeches are being used as manuals to win people over,” Lang believes. The many Holocaust survivors he’s interviewed - including some who are featured in his film - have told him that “they see something in the world today that reminds them of Germany 80 years ago.”
Just have to ask, why the "brown eyed" Hitler? It seems that every portrayal of him, including the brilliant film "Downfall" with Bruno Ganz gives him brown eyes. Actors can always use tinted contacts, so that's not an excuse. They also tend to make him more darker complexed for some reason. As most anyone with a passing knowledge of WWII knows, Hitler was famous for his pale blue eyes, dark brown hair, and for having a rather sallow complexion. Same applies to Napoleon and Alexander the Great. Each had gray-blue eyes. Napoleon had dark blond hair with a slight reddish tint and Alexander's was believed to be a blondish-red. Is there some sort of rule or law which says you have to change the appearance of historical individuals?
I can't help thinking that Trump and Elon Musk fit the bill-what's the difference between oligarchy and dictatorship? How do you react? I read your essays "religiously" and with great respect and admiration
This is a totally absurd kind of an answer. Just take a look at demonization of the other party by the Democrats. They have consistently attempted to call all the conservatives “Nazi” and Hitler. Alaine, you have had too much cool aid.
I am a realist if G_ d forbid Iran gets nuke capabilites then the world will go up in smoke this week's Torah portion is Noah the flood the destruction of the world now the people can destroy themselves I hope it doesn't happen the other stuff is nothing in comparsion to G _ d forbid a nuke Holocaust I hope that the world is prepared for this if it comes to pass that is what Jews and Israel are afraid of they must act fast to stop it asap
“America is for Americans and Americans only.”
When people say this, even if it is a Jew like Stephen Miller, make no mistake about it: They don't mean everyone who is an American citizen. Most of these people would exclude Jews who they see as not American enough. Large Chassidic communities are seen as foreign and are just as much a target of this rhetoric as the "millions and millions of illegals who are flooding across our borders". Even immigrants who are in the USA legally have been targeted using the excuse that the law that was applied allowing their entry was "illegal".
A vote for these people is a vote for antisemitism.
The greatest threat to Jews is not from the small number of Muslims who are attempting to gain acceptance in the West nor the small number of "leftists" who are sympathetic to Palestinian rights. People who feel entitlement, like those chanting “America is for Americans and Americans only”, are the greater threat. These are the sorts of people who carry out attacks like the one at the Tree of Life synagogue.
Yes, it is, Europe already has Muslim laws there and don't listen or adhere to the law of the land, you really don't know anything in France there is no go zone police are scared to go there, you just yuk yuk yuk and don't know zilch
If you are a man it does not matter to much to you, but if are a woman then you will have problems from the Muslim men like the women have in Europe, and the law does not protect the women that become victims because there is Muslim Law there snd not the law of the land and now they have the mind to take over America maybe Canada too, and will other religions be able to worship their religion in peace will women have to wear a hijab( the thing Muslim women wear on their head) in that society women have no rights at all even a Jewish that was married to a Muslim Phyllis Chelser wrote s book about it
Where are the European men? If my husband or my sons or my son in law saw me being abused like that there would be hell to pay.
Antisemitic incidents rose 57% in 2017 under Trump. Have you forgotten how bad it was when he was President?
2017 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents | ADL
That isn't true, now there is a lot Anti Semitism in schools, colleges, unversities, in the streets where are you getting your infornation from, why are Orrhodox Jews voting for him, what ADL writes is fake they are lying there is a lot of Anti Semitism from the Muslim population and liberal progessive left, the leader of ADL was a person from the Barach Hussen Obama a big anti semite anti Israel, anti white, hater of America that apolised to the enemies of America, and gave a lot of money to Iran, and dropped sauctioms them, and finaced the terror what is happening now in Israel if G _ d forbid Iran gets nuke capabilities then the world gets nuked you think you know everything you don't the only one that knows this outcome is Jews and Israel the rest of the world does not get this fact
What are you talking about you make no sense, what do you know you are in Canada why don't you worry about your anti semitic leader that has Muslim in their family, in Yiddish translation someone that stirs other people's pots and what is in it and they should mind the
own pot not other people's pots
Orthodox Jewish support for President Trump goes way beyond his pro-Israel stance. Yes, moving the embassy to Jerusalem and the Abraham Accords matter to us a lot. But our support is really about a shared vision for America—one that values family, accountability, safe neighborhoods, and a strong economy. These aren’t just political stances; they’re core values in the Orthodox community.
For us, Torah values like responsibility, faith, and community guide our choices, and Trump’s policies on things like border security, law enforcement, and religious freedom align with those beliefs. It’s not about liking the person but about backing someone whose policies feel like they protect the kind of stable, moral society we care about.
So your impression of liberals is that they don't value family, accountability, safe neighborhoods and a strong economy? What would EVER lead you to believe that any of your neighbors thinks that way? How is any of that incompatible with liberalism?
You need to talk to people outside of your bubble. You will discover that these hopes are shared by ALL of your neighbors, but what is more, the "liberals" hope that ALL people can share in these, even those who don't agree when them on everything. That's what "liberal" means.
People talking about immigrants "poisoning the blood of America" are talking about Jews, too. And don't take comfort if their leader has a daughter who is a Jewish convert or if he has a Jewish lawyer.
That liberals don't value family, accountability, safe neighborhoods and a strong economy has been my experience with a sister for over 60 years, and is the case with every liberal I know, including old friends.
If you want to persuade me, you'll have to be specific. I don't know if you even know what "liberal" means.
It is utter rubbish to imagine that anyone doesn't want fair employment, safe neighborhoods, a loving family, or accountability. It's exhausting to hear this libel day in and day out.
The most hypocritical of these is accountability, given the lack of accountability we have seen over the last few decades from right-wing politicians everywhere in the world.
Do you know who Dr Joseph Mengele( may his name be erased) is and do know why he( may his name be erased) was called" the angel of death" I know the answer boy do I know the answer, so don't tell me not to talk about Constitution Camps I might be able to teach the subject
Who you think Dr. Joseph Mengele( may his name be erased) I guess you don't know why he( may his name be erased) was called " the angel of death" when you arrived in Auschwitz like my mother( obm) and other Holocaust Surivors( obm) knew the answer immediately
I agree with you
I agree, also if Iran gets nuke capabilities then it will be WW 3 G _ d forbid the only country sees this is Israel/Jews and must act fast before that happens and what I am saying is the truth I am not being dramatic but it can happen G _ d forbid
Jews are not the only targets of radical Islam. They hate Christains and followers of Siddharta (Buddah). Right now there are fights going on in the far East between followers of Islam and followers of Siddharta, it just not get a lot of play in the West.
If Muslims take over the world you will have to become Muslim or be 2 or 3 class citizen, also if Iran gets nuke capabilities then the world will get nuked G _ d forbid it will be W.W. 3 , who will live then and what will be the outcome from nuclear fallout, liiberal or not I am a realist like I read what do you learn from a game of chess to foresee the outcome of the moves you make Israel/ Jews see the outcome the rest of the world and you don't see the reality
I don't think ADS knows who Dr Joseph Mengele( my his name be erased) (also known as " the angel of death) I know about him( my his name be erased)
Why is this person ADS writing about American politics he/ she isn't even American and trivalising and disrespecting the real people that were in concentration camps, or were murdered there and I don't want to talk about how they murdered the people but my mother( obm) told me enough stories and said it even worst then you can picture in your mind I know being there even one day is like being in h__l on earth, and holy people know the real truth about the people that were there it is upsetting when people shoot off their mouth and know really nothing about this subject and I say Never forget, Never forgive and Never again!!
Here in Canada we will need to be ready for the flood of people fleeing the USA, including Jews, if the white nationalists take complete power there.
How safe are your college campuses?
A lot safer than Washington DC on Jan 6, 2021, not to mention that the murder rate per capita here is 1/3 of that in the USA.
What's your point?
But the real question is: What would Trump do about it? There were widespread protests in US cities during the Trump presidency, so we know the answer: He would sit in the White House and blame everyone else while doing nothing. Likewise when the racist protesters were marching in Charlottesville. Doing nothing while blaming others is his brand.
He says he can fix everything if he is elected, but what did he fix when he was President? Now, as former president, he does nothing to help his country and he has no specific plans. Why would anyone believe him?
Not at all, college was safe when Trump was president
So please explain to me how Trump made Canadian university campuses safe?
You need to chill a little.
That's the bizarre thing about all this anti-Democrat stuff. Somehow all of the world's problems are Biden's fault: campus protests in Canada, inflation in Europe, terrorist attacks or wars in distant places... and Trump can fix it all. You do remember that Trump was president before and these problems aren't new; none of them were fixed by him?
If you live in Canada what is your business what is going on in America, you think you are a know it all and are a mixing the pot in every subject that is written down here, and don't know anything about American politics, also you don't know anything about the Holocaust either and know nothing about Dr. Joseph Mengele( may his name be erased) " the angel of death" in my view you really know nothing but you make out you know everything, you just like to argue with people but in reality you think you know but you don't know anything, most people that had relatives in Holocaust know much more than you do about the subject about the Holocaust, the more I hear from you I doubt you are even Jewish and are disrespecting and trivalising the Holocaust, I in America it is my business not your
Judy, most people outside of the USA pay attention to what is going on elsewhere in the world. You can't solve issues in isolation.
Because of all of the conflicts in the world, all countries have to deal with immigrants. Trump saying that he can fix the problem is an absurdity. Blaming Biden/Harris for a problem that has been building globally for years is just plain stupid.
Likewise, every country has had inflation and cost of living issues since Covid. Blaming Biden/Harris for this is, again, just plain stupid.
Trump never fixed anything the first time. No health care plan, no border wall, nothing. Just empty promises. Anybody can stand on the stage and say they can fix everything, but you know that they can't.
Your Prime Minister is an Iran-loving Jew-hater. Trump has more Jewish grandchildren than you do. Think about it.
Did Trump approve of Ivanka's conversion? Didn't he ask why she was the one converting and not Jarod? Did he attend his granddaughter's bat mitzvah? You think about it. He doesn't love it that they are Jewish.
Sure he has "friends" who are Jewish but also "friends" who are Arab tyrants; whatever benefits him. He would turn on Israel if it benefited him.
You call him a "friend". Would you like to have a friend like him, someone who would turn on you if you didn't do exactly what he wanted from you? Do you encourage members of your family to try to be more like him?
Trudeau is a Muslim-loving moron. A liberal like me is allowed to disagree with other liberals. You not being able to voice disagreement is one of the most disturbing aspects of your politics
Right, also is family is married to a Muslim
You are a very ignore person that doesn't know the real facts, Trump was president before and America was better no inflation, no stealing no lawkessness, a Jewish student was safe to go to public schools, colleges/unversties, Iran didn" t get money had santions, no terror proxies from Iran, if Trump was president no massacre of 10/07/23, also Jews were safe to walk the streets while looking Jewish, most Orthodox Jews support Trump the Democratic Party now is not like it used to be very progessive left that want communism for the people but not for the leaders, like I read which of the two are the lesser evil so the people of America have to chose, your are in another country so you are not involved at all
The biggest camp where they killed people was in a site located in Auschwitz- Birnea( a sub camp ) of Auschwitx, most of these Contcentratation Camps were really sites for killing people, I thought people knew this, that Contcentratiom Camps were actually killing sites, and were lucky to get out alive, most of these places were as big as cities and people that arrived there already knew they could be killed at any moment mostly Concentratation Camps/ were also places they killed Jews or others that were deemed subhumans by Nazis( may their name be erased)
Judy, this is just irrelevant to the issue that I am raising.
What we call the places that Americans will need to build for the millions of immigrants that will be rounded up for deportation is beside the point. Why are you unable to agree with me that no Jew should be in favor of the mass deportation that has been PROMISED by Trump?
This is just one of the evils that you are choosing. It is by no means "the lesser evil".
Did you not watch the rally at MSG so that you could see for yourself what these horrible people have in mind? Do you know that Trump chose that location because it was the site of an American Nazi rally in 1939? Do you know anything about the history of Nazism in the USA?
I say it again: listen to what these people are saying!
I know the truth, why kind of garbage are you talking about, I know about when the Nazis in the USA had a rally Jewish gangsters beat them up, also Trump was president before Jews were ok, also a lot of Orthodox Jews support Trump also Trump will be good for America, Israel and the world, if G_d forbid the Democrats win then it could be WW 3, I read that the opponent of your prime mininster said " Israel should knock out Iran's nukes, it will a gift to the whole world from the Jewish people" when I watch Science Fiction they already talked about WW 3 so you want it to be a reality if this happens there is vault with seeds, what will happen to the people of the world then do you know this fact smarty pants
Yes homosexuals and gypsys and people who were allegedly mentally challenged were also put in concentration camps to be extinguished under the reign of the Third Reich.
Anyone that calls it concentration camp(s) are trivalising the Holocaust, these people are criminals, terrorists and not innocent people being killed because they are Jewish, shame on you for traivaling the Holocaust, my mother(obm) was there the worst one Auschwitz- Bireanu( a sub camp) so don't shoot off your mouth about these places you know nothing about I know to much, my mother( obm) told me what happened there, go on a Yad Vashem site to learn more on this subject , the more I hear what you write your as Jewish as a ham sandwich that is something Ben Shapiro said about someone, who are you and where are you from I really getting my doubts that you are you really Jewish, I am personally connected to the Holocaust and don't like writing about for political reasons
Just learn to find the facts before you post: Concentration camp - Wikipedia
Wikipedia is anti semitc and anti Israel site, I can post what I want my mother( obm) was there so don't tell me about concentration camps you are not really Jewish, you got a lot of nerve telling me not to post when my mother(obm) was there and told me what really went on there, the way you write sounds you are really are a very anti semitic person and say they you are Jewish, you are full of bolgna, you are really anti semite and anti Israel, my mother(obm) was a witness and was in Auschwitz- Birneau( a sub camp) of Auschwitz Concentration Camp are you really a Holocaust Denier you sound like it, you shouldn't post I am a child of a Holocaust Survivor( obm) so don't talk about this subject go to Yad Vashem not Wikipedia to know the true facts
There is nothing political in how we define these terms. The camp that you mention was a specific type of concentration camp called an "extermination camp". Not all concentration camps were extermination camps. If you would take the time to educate yourself, you would see that there have been concentration camps here in Canada, quite close to where I live as it turns out, which were definitely not extermination camps. Even so, we continue to debate their morality.
However, the concentration camps that the US will need for its mass deportation scheme will dwarf the World War II concentration camps in Canada and the US, and even those that were in Germany/Poland.
Given what you say about yourself, why do you attack me rather than this horrific proposal? I'm not the problem!
You don't know the true facts, I was told my whole life about Concentration Camps and my mother(obm) was in the worst one Auschwitz- Birneau( a sub camp) of Auschwitz so don't tell me what to do your ignorant about what really went on in Concentration Camps also about American politics, I know to much about this subject and my mother( obm) told me it was much worst than she( obm) told me and I was told" it was like being in h__l on earth" and it was very big, I know all the horrific, grumsome things what went on there, if you want to really learn about the Holocaust go on the Yad Vashem site not another site, don't trivalise the Holocaust I am the second generation of my mother( obm) the witness of what really happened there not from a bolgna site but true facts
You don't know the true facts I do, my mother( obm) was a eye witness and was there, so don't tell me anything about this subject I think I can teach the subject also 6 million Jews were murdered and 5 million non Jews, you got a lot of nerve to tell me not to post about this subject I have lots of information on this subject also I helped my mother( obm) to make speeches about the Holocaust in schools and college so don't shoot off your mouth about writing about the Holocaust in fact I know to much information about the subject and all children and grandchilden are in the same boat
These camps were both Concentratation Camps/ and killing places in a lot of those places and most Holocaust Survivors knew this when you arrived in Auschwitz-Birneau they told others when they arrived there this fact, you are not a child of a Holocaust Survivor( obm) like me that they were actually both, and our parents told us this fact, and the process how it happened which way you go and the outcome one side you are alive and the other side you are not a alive
I know the facts they were actually both, most families that had relatives in the Holocaust know this these places could of been very big, and were located in different parts of the place for example Auschwitz had sub camps and was one of the biggest places one place was a Concentratation Camp and another place was were they killed/ murdered you, people that were there still have nightmares about these places, and if your parent(s) were there you sometimes hear lot about it I know it was both places and if Holocaust Survivors( obm) would compare stories and would find out they were there had rhe same time
Wikipedia is not the best source for finding out about Concentration camps, if you want to learn about this read the actual books that have been written by survivors of the Camps and you will get the real story.
Mass Deportation Now!
You would think that Jews, of all people, would understand what the image above means. If president, this man says that he will arrest over 20 million people and put them into concentration camps awaiting deportation. How can any Jew support him? Will you stand along the roadways and railways to jeer these people as they are hauled away?
Having created a worker crisis far worse than at any other time in US history, you will then see the sign "Work makes one free" erected over the gates of these camps.
Will you believe it then?
When World War 2 ended and found out about the Holocaust, everybody should of learned first the Holocaust started words lies, falsehoods, propaganda, then there was book burning and then they murdered people also the offical start of the Holocaust on Kristallnacht( the night of broken glass) and made the Jews pay for damage and got beaten up or worst also colleges and unversities in 1930s/ 1940s had anti semitism on campuses like they have now also boycotting Jewish owned stores like BDS against Israel does anyone see the connection
Also after the " night of broken glass" they dragged people to concentrstion camps also there was killing places which I think started I think November 9, 1938 or 1939 which is coming next month I hope they have functions about what happened on that day the offical start of the Holocaust
Dov Hikind a religious Orthodox Jew that his mother( obm) was a Holocaust Survivor will vote for Trump and used to be a Democratic, the father of Donald Trump who was Fred Trump was friends with a Rabbi had Jewish friends and gave a lot of money support for Israel, in psychlogy it is called projection the Democratic are the real anti semites look what is happening on college/ unversity campuses, a lot of anti semitic attacks on Jews, and support Hamas and Muslim hate besides other haters of Jews and Isrsel, in my view the real haters of Jews are the very left leaning progressive Democrats, why don't some Jews see the truth, my mother( obm) a Holocaust Survivor voted for Trump when he became president the first time, on the history channel they compared Barack Obama to Hitler
Great article. I've learned a lot. Thanks for this 🙂
RoyC
Philippines
I knew this article would draw out the Trump-haters.
Any politician examined under the lens of Goebbles is guilty. Still, a whale and a carp have superficial resemblance, but they evolved differently.
I'm seeing a few anti-Trump trends among Jews. Many absorbed the Marxist Media's hatred of Trump, mostly for stopping the Fundamental Transformation of the US into a Socialist Third World Banana Republic. And Trump is far from genteel, annoying those with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder who viscerally can't stand his lack of decorum. But the main problem (among the Reform at least) is the perception that Trump has taken away the "right" to have unprotected relations. How did we sink so low as to make abortion a sacrament and the basis on which to select a leader?
Here’s some food for thought: 89% of Orthodox Jews—the most visibly Jewish and Jewishly knowledgeable, as well as Holocaust-aware segment of American Jewry—support Trump’s candidacy.
If there’s a takeaway from this article, it’s that the media’s portrayal of Trump as a “dangerous, authoritarian threat” is today's 'big lie' that defies reality, yet has seemingly hypnotized many. After all, he already held office for four years, with full power, and governed within the bounds of American democracy. The claim that he’d suddenly turn “Hitlerian” seems more like a cynical and convenient political narrative than a genuine risk.
Sad but true about the OJs votes. What I don't understand is why they vote for him. I've always heard "vote your values" so how does Trump's rhetoric fit in with a Shomer Shabbos life? As a Jew I'd be ashamed to vote for someone like Trump.
Trump is not a Jew and is not subject to our laws. What "values" are you worried about? When it comes to Jews and Israel, Trump has been the best friend we have ever had in the White House. KH would be the worst, with her JINO lickspittle husband and a dozen Jew-hating Iran-loving officials running policy.
As a Jew, you should be ashamed to vote for someone like KH, and proud to vote for someone like Trump who would continue to help us.
Do you know the difference between Trump and most American Jews? Trump has more Jewish grandchildren. Don't forget that.
Harris not a saint either
The Torah supports social conservatism. That means pro-family, pro-Gd, against immorality, pro-security, against theft. The Democrats' policies are evil, and their rhetoric is full of lies.
You speak of "Trump's rhetoric," but have you ever heard one his speeches yourself, unfiltered by the media's leftist spin?
Why trust the media to interpret what Trump is saying? Why trust them to tell you what is and is not shameful?
Yes, exactly.... can you say that you have listened to Trump unfiltered? Have you "fact-checked" what he says? Or what his people say? Have you researched the Democrat's "evil" policies or checked to see if their rhetoric is "full of lies", or do you rely on someone to tell you what to think?
You know, I am a terrible, terrible person ... I hate families, I support immorality, I don't think people should be secure, and definitely I encourage theft. Isn't that what you're saying?
We don't say things like that about you. We say things about Trump, the convicted conman who has shown that he will do or say anything if it benefits him.
I'm so glad I don't live in the USA. Good luck to all of you there.
Trump seems more into the Mussolini mode and it's a shame frum Jews support him in such big numbers but while Harris is not one I'd choose over a normal republican trump is far more dangerous to America. I
Again, let me mention that this new movie can be seen, on Apple TV.
And again, I agree with the concerns about Trumpism, as voting approaches.
From the replies, it saddens to see that the leftist media-fed 'big lie' has seemingly even penetrated into aish.com's intelligent and discerning readership.
If you don't trust the media, then listen to the candidates' own words; all of them, not just the sound bytes picked up by the media or for ads.
If you don't know which media to trust then compare what the outlets are reporting to what was actually said, and what was actually done in the past.
Don't let others interpret the facts for you; do your own research.
Main media in America and Israel is leftist and you have to get the media which is truth not bias opinions so where do you truthful information not bias opinions masquarding as real news
Are you saying that nothing has changed since Trump was first elected president? Don't you have take into account that people change markedly in response to major events in their lives?
Listen to what they are saying! One of the candidates is saying that the presidency will be much, much different if elected. Believe your own ears.
I'm not an American... we're all watching as the USA reveals who they really are.
Triumpanzee is following %100 Shtler's playbook, with the same result! Just replace the word "Jude" with "Latino", and it becomes abundantly clear!
I agree.Trump and his colleagues are using the same playbook.
You must be a Democrat, what you are saying is not true, the real haters are in the Democratic Party, when Biden/Harris came out a lot of anti semitism/ anti Israel in colleges/ unversities, Jews being attacked are on the rise, a massacre in Israel, terrorism also in America high inflation, stores gettimg robbed lawlessness, things that you buy are locked up, nothing on shelfs, it is scary shelves in stores are empty like they had in communism, Harris/ Walz want communism for the United States but not for them, our freedom is in danger also under Harris/Walz there could be WW 3
Really? Supply-side housing policy is communism? Giving billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the last year and agonizing over Hamas' refusal to sign the cease fire Israel already has accepted is antisemitism?
What are talking about? Another liberal that has a problem with Trump and doesn't is the haters in the Democratic Party
I mean see the haters in the Democratic Party
It seems so much to me, while reflecting on this fascinating and informative essay, as if Dr. Miller could be addressing the propaganda efforts and mistruths of current right wing candidates in America today - who proclaim their love for Israel solely for their own gain. The repeated big lies and the demonizing of people depicted as "others", as "vermin" and as less than human is so very like what monsters like Goebbels promoted. Thank you, Dr. Miller, for such clear and thoughtful writing.
Kevin, in this day and age very few right wingers use Israel exclusively for their own gain without any belief in what they say. I make no comment as to individual candidates (few tell much truth, whichever party they come from) but it is important to appreciate that the false narrative concerning Israel comes very much from the left wing. Just as the right wing was the major threat to Jews in the 1930s, so the left wing is the major threat to Jews in 2024. Antisemitism is capable of coming from either side of the political spectrum, and today its home is predominantly on the left.
I beg to disagree, as a life-long Democrat. Branding people, as leftist or rightist is playing the same game of rejection we found in Germany. Thinking and reasoning, again, is now a knee-jerk reaction. Election Day is coming to the USA, in days. And this great story, might wake up a few people. THANKS
(It is now on APPLE tv) Let us hope for the best outcome, Nov 5 in the USA!
Right
The Nazis( may their name be erased) were actually socialist not right wing that is what I read and I read a lot of information
It's so sad that the same techniques are being put to use today regarding Israel, and those techniques have 1000 times the power due to social media; nowadays who doesn't have a smartphone close to hand? Add to the mix the fact that so many mainstream media outlets have been captured by a twisted left wing ideology dressed up as concern for 'human rights and justice'. Plus a younger generation who think that TikTok is the place to pick up reliable news. A truly perfect storm.
Propaganda, Jew-hate, demagoguery and the fact that he was not even German helped propel Hitler to power and popularity . . . much like what we saw with the Kenyan Hitler . . . Much like Adolph of Germany, Hussein Osama also sought the final solution to the Jewish question and thought to accomplish that through the nuclear armed Iran - the nuclear Holocaust . . . In Israel we witnessed the evil of Barry Soetoro on Oct. 7th - the direct result of his genocidal nuke deal with Iran . . .
It wouldn't be only Israel the whole world could be nuked G _d forbid
I read that Israel is ready if there is G _ d forbid a nuke attack, but the rest of the world is not prepared, recently I read in the article about what happens when there is a nuke fallout and thank G _ d the Jew head came up with a solution if this happens with information I read Israel is more prepared a lot more any other countries will this be gog and magog like it says in the Succot prophet of Ezekiel I heard that Russia and China are also with Iran if it is W W 3 or gog and magog you still get the same outcome only Hashem knows the future not human beings we have to pray for the best
It should be noted that Hitler and Goebbels were fully aware that Germany and much of Europe had a deep history of antiSemitism going back a thousand years and Christianity taught antiSemitism for 1700 years which was 300 years after the birth of Christ and Martin Luther,the founder of Protestantism was a virulent antiSemite who preached violence against Jews as did Mohammed the founder of Islam1400 years ago and Pope PiusXII as a Vatican messenger before WWII signed a Vatican Concordat with Hitler for the Church to keep out of politics if Hitler and his Government would keep out of religious affairs.The consequence was Christians and leaders worldwide were almost totally silent as Hitler’s Government and their European collaborators murdered six million totally innocent Jews.
It should also be remembered that Eastern Europe carried out pogroms against Jews for at least a 1000 years,particularly in Russia,The Ukraine and Poland and that Ukrainians were enthusiastic collaborators with Hitler’s Death Squads in murdering 1.6million Jewish men,women and children in the Ukraine during WWII. Eye witness accounts of the pogroms in the Ukraine after WWI stated that the murderers were ecstatic.
The Ukraines I heard were worst than the Nazis( may their name be erased) so nobody should feel sorry for them now what is going on Ukraine they deserve pay back in my opinion
You are 100 % right unfortunately, that is why it was easy to carry out, also the Nazis( may their name be erased) found out Jews are not united and Jews from other countries don't like each other unfortunately so now if Jews want others to like us we must love our fellow Jews that is why we are in exile in rhe first place
I also know besides murdering six million totally innocent Jews, the Nazis( may their name be erased) murdered five million non Jews too Yad Vashem has the list I think who else they murdered that weren't Jewish
Hitler( may his name be erased) was not German but Austrian from Austria where Vienna is not Berlin
Brilliant and sad article.
The saddest part is if your family was in the Holocaust, and also if your family lost their relatives in the Holocaust, right after the Holocaust this information should of been taught in schools to know the truth about WW 2 and what let up the Holocaust and the Holocaust soon will be the time when KristallNacht( the night of broken glass) when the Holocaust offically started November 09, 1938/1939 I think it was around that time
EXCELLENT!!!!
It is sad, frightening and disgusting that anyone could think there is anything positive about Hitler(may his name be erased) he was a evil, demonic dictator and murdered 6 millon Jews and 5 million non Jews, and anyone that thinks otherwise is ill informed or evil, also there is a lot of anti semitism and anti zionism by Europeans, Muslims, and others and they aligned with the worst anti semite in history and wrote about his evilness in the book Mein Kenif( my fight) it was translated in Arabic, one Jewish person read it in German and told his family to escape to America or another save country his family didn't listen to him and this Jewish person wad the only one that survived from his family, it is beyond belief that this horrific dictator is anyone's hero is very disturbing
Now the so called " Palestinians" use Hitler's (may his name be erased) book mein kenif(my fight) in Arabic, also the so called " Palestinans" use the Nazi( may their name be erased) playbook like lies, falshoods, propaganda like Joseph Gobbels(my his name be erased), and will this film be positive for the against anti semitism/ anti zionism or be negative, and even though this is going on there so a lot of intermarriage in the world, how very sad
I just hope the film doesn’t have the opposite effect and further promote anti-Jewish propaganda, as well as teaching yet another generation of antisemites “how it’s done”.
You make a very good point. Out of curiosity I've seen some of those Nazi propaganda films about Jews and they are nasty.
Also the Nazis( may their name be erased) was not only against Jews, there is a whole list I think it was on Yad Vashem site the whole list who else they were against and murdered/ killed, the scary thing they came to power, and now worst people don't know real history about this time period to learn about WW 2 and the Holocaust also in the movie " Band of Brothers" you saw how they liberated a Concenratation Camp do people learn about this in schools, also there is also real footage about Concentration Camps I think Dwight Eisenhower filmed it for evidence they places really existed
Putin has claimed that Ukraine is part of historic Russia and accused President Zelenskyy of being a “Nazi”. When Russians (whose military suffered the most men killed in action of any military fighting in WWII) hear that, they think of the German invasion of USSR. Marketing of products for sale is not that different from propaganda: just tell people believable things while promoting the product and many will buy. I hope I will have the chance to see this film.
The Russians are not so kosher either about anti semitism
"...by understanding how Goebbels was able to make Hitler’s odious worldview seem palatable and even attractive, viewers will be able to view propaganda critically..." Today’s leftist-driven media has taken this tactic to new levels, creating a propaganda machine for the woke agenda. They package harmful ideologies in attractive, virtue-signaling narratives, while systematically ignoring or whitewashing the damage these ideas inflict on both individuals and society. It’s crucial that we remain vigilant and question the media’s motives, recognizing that their agenda often aims to silence opposing views and control the narrative.
Right, I agree
This is happening around 80 years after the Holocaust, in 1945 right after the Holocaust schools should of taught how the Holocaust was allowed to happen it started with what was mentiioned in this article, and people these days don't know good from evil, and it very mindboogling a lot of Holocaust Survivors unfortunately passed away and the only way to learn the lesson is hearing survivors from tech what happened, and what led to 6 million Jews and 5 million others to be murdered with no consquences, actually there were the trials in Nurenberg, unfortunately most Nazis( may their name be erased) didn't pay for their crimes, my mom( obm) was in Auschwitz- Birneau one of the worst concentration camps
This is very scary to hear, we must learn from the past to save our future