NJDC Slams Beck’s Comparison of Norway Victims to Hitler Youth
Listed in: NJDC News, Press Releases
Beck Challenged to Clarify Views on Summer Camps
WASHINGTON, DC- The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) today condemned right wing radio host Glenn Beck’s comparison of the teenage victims of the tragic Norwegian shooting to members of Hitler Youth, the Nazi youth organization.
The shooting occurred at a summer camp organized by the Labor Party for young members and children of members. Apparently confused about the concept of “a camp for kids that’s all about politics,” Beck said it “sounds a little like the Hitler Youth.”
NJDC President and CEO David A. Harris issued the following statement:
“Just when we think Glenn Beck can get no more offensive, he ups the ante. It is simply horrendous that Beck would compare the young victims of this tragic crime in Norway to the ‘Hitler Youth.’ It is repugnant to invoke the Holocaust like this when discussing a Labor Party summer camp for teens—to say nothing of a camp that was attacked in this calamitous way. After myriad offensive examples of abusive Holocaust rhetoric, the time has finally come for Glenn Beck to cease and desist. Doing otherwise dilutes the memory of the Holocaust and stains the memory of the victims in Norway as well.”
NJDC has a consistent record of denouncing all inappropriate invocations of Holocaust rhetoric.
Harris also challenged Beck to clarify his views on summer camps—views that were at the core of his offensive “Hitler Youth” comparison. Harris added:
“As someone who considers himself to be an advocate for Israel and a friend to the Jewish community, Beck surely must know that a significant portion of American Jewish youth spend their summers in summer camps around the country. Many of these camps have a strong social justice component, and most promote a fundamental Zionist message, some joined with other political themes. Yet on his show it was these very components that Beck said made the camp in Norway sound ‘a little like the Hitler Youth’ to him. As a self-identified friend of Israel and American Jews, Beck certainly needs to clarify his views about the summer camps that are an essential component of the upbringing of so many American Jews.”
Click here to read more about Beck’s outlandish and unfortunate comparison.
A sampling of Beck’s previous invocations of the Holocaust includes:
- Comparing President Barack Obama to the Nazis for holding BP accountable for its oil spill. [NJDC Blog, June 25, 2010]
- Accusing Obama Administration officials of behaving like Nazis. [Media Matters, October 5, 2010]
- Equating Obama campaign videos with the works of Joseph Goebbels. [Media Matters, February 16, 2010]
- Branding the pursuit of social justice as “Nazism.” [NJDC Blog, March 5, 2010]
- Accusing billionaire George Soros of “send[ing] Jews to death camps.” [NJDC Blog, November 12, 2010]
- Likening a Republican candidate who frequently participated in Nazi reenactments to children playing “cowboys and Indians.” [NJDC Blog, October 13, 2010]
- Hosting guests who invoke the Holocaust and egging them on. [NJDC Blog, September 27, 2010]
- Invoking the poem “First they came…” to protest soda bans in municipal buildings in Boston, MA. [NJDC Blog, September 21, 2010]
Less than two years into President Obama’s presidency, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote that Beck had used:
... 202 mentions of Nazis or Nazism… 147 mentions of Hitler, 193 mentions of fascism or fascist, and another 24 bonus mentions of Joseph Goebbels. Most of these were directed in some form at Obama—as were the majority of the 802 mentions of socialist or socialism on Beck’s nightly ‘report.’ [The Washington Post, July 18, 2010]
In January 2011, a group of 400 Rabbis representing multiple Jewish movements took out a full page ad in The Wall Street Journal to rebuke Beck and call for him to face sanctions from Fox News. [NJDC Blog, January 27, 2011]
Despite public outcry over his abusive Holocaust rhetoric, Beck never relented and continues to abuse the memory of the Holocaust to make his political points. [Media Matters, July 26, 2011]
