Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
I was honored to be interviewed by a university’s Holocaust and Genocide Education Center for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I’ve worked in Holocaust education for more than 40 years, starting before I learned that my dad was a US military intelligence officer assigned to interrogate Nazi POWs. I did know that he’d been a soldier in World War II because as a kid, I found an old photo of him in uniform. Always a curious little critter, I asked, “Daddy, did you kill anyone in the war?” He answered, “No, but I slapped somebody once…the Nazi said that Hitler was great, but should have killed more Jews.”
Sadly, echoes of that antisemitic comment are increasingly mainstreamed. Extremist groups like Proud Boys voiced similar views and was deeply involved in the Jan. 6 attack on our Capital. Yet, President Trump pardoned its leader and proposed giving him a government position. These extremist views were evident when Elon Musk went to Germany to support in-person the country’s far-right party. Musk told them to forget guilt over the Holocaust. Move on… and don’t get distracted from German traditional values by all that multiculturalism. Those “values” probably echo Hitler’s Aryan (White) nationalism.
So it wasn’t surprising when my interviewer asked about my response to the recent ArkanSanity podcast by Arkansas-based MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter Bryce Mitchell. Apparently he said, “I honestly think that Hitler was a good guy based on my research, not my public education indoctrination.” And he announced, “The Holocaust ain’t real”. Wow! And this is someone who is influencing our young men.
Let’s first look at Bryce’s nice-guy Hitler claim. It was based on his research and I bet he accessed fraudulent materials on the internet that suck in willing and compliant folks. Classroom teachers are constantly dealing with this phenomenon since many students are easily influenced by internet “alternate facts”.
Insisting that Hitler was a nice guy and innocent of all Holocaust terror isn’t new. I first heard it 30 years ago from international Holocaust Denier David Irving when he spoke in Tulsa shortly after the OK City bombing. Irving quoted from a letter supposedly written by Hitler saying he actually loved the Jews. It wasn’t well known because the letter was written in an ancient form of German that only Irving could translate. Yup, that’s how these insane theories get going.
Next let’s go to Bryce’s “public education indoctrination” comment. The word “indoctrination” is a political, coded message designed to de-legitimize. And when it’s applied to public education, there’s a powerful message to reject that education as unpatriotic propaganda. Note that Hitler used the term “indoctrination” and also applied it to education to eliminate, censor and reject any dissent. And Communist and Jewish influences were top of the list for those who degraded the Aryan national culture. If Hitler had known the term “multicultural” I’m sure he would have used it warn groups like Hitler Youth which shaped and educated by Nazi ideology, did Hitler’s every bidding.
I’m wary of today’s similar approach to “public education indoctrination” and know that many of us scared given that the historical outcome was the incarceration and murder of millions. That’s why Holocaust denial is part today’s anti-indoctrination movement. It’s supposed to counteract that fear as is Musk’s “Move on!” and his prompt to reject a multicultural nation.
History teaches us to not deny, ignore, or be silent and move on. Learn from the Holocaust that authoritarian control of education and dissent is a dangerous path. Our better strategy is to view multiculturalism as a national asset and embrace respect, not hate.
- Remembering the Holocaust and learning from it – by Deborah Levine - March 7, 2025
- Bruce Sudano Podcast – Musical Ball of Fire - March 6, 2025
- Let’s Revive Black-Jewish Dialogue – by Deborah Levine - February 17, 2025