With Carson’s Despicable Holocaust Remarks He’d Flunk Middle School History
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Ben Carson’s comments about the Holocaust in his new book show his lack of historical accuracy and understanding. His words, defended by gun advocates, ignore what children are taught about the Nazis. Not only is Carson willfully ignorant in pursuit of a pro-gun agenda, his comments are insulting to Jews and to anyone who understands history.
He wrote:
“German citizens were disarmed by their government in the late 1930s and by the late 1940s Hitler’s regime had mercilessly slaughtered 6 million Jews and numerous others whom they considered inferior. Through a combination of removing guns and disseminating deceitful propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.”
Valerie Strauss sets the record straight:
Jews were not allowed to carry guns under Nazi law, so the notion that disarmament helped increase the victim totals is nonsensical. Jews resisted as best as their circumstances allowed.
The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida’s Middle School Teaching Trunk instructs:
When studying about the Holocaust, students frequently ask, “Why didn’t the Jews fight back?” It may appear at first glance that Jews didn’t resist, but this is not true. They resisted as much as any other group under Nazi occupation. Most often, they had to act under circumstances that could hardly have been less suited for such activities. They used the methods available to them according to local situations and individual circumstances. Resistance was usually carried out against great odds and with incomplete information about the overall situation. They had little or no outside help and often had to contend with the anti-Semitism of others who were also under occupation.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum explains:
Despite great obstacles (such as lack of armaments and training, conducting operations in a hostile zone, reluctance to leave families behind, and the ever-present Nazi terror), many Jews throughout German-occupied Europe attempted armed resistance against the Germans. As individuals and in groups, Jews engaged in opposition to the Germans and their Axis partners. Jewish resistance units operated in France, Belgium, the Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, and Poland. Jews also fought in general French, Italian, Yugoslav, Greek, and Soviet resistance organizations.
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