ADL urges GOP leaders to condemn Holocaust imagery at rally

The Anti-Defamation League is urging all Republican members of Congress who attended last week’s "Tea Party" rally against Democratic health-care reform plans to "condemn forcefully the invocation of Holocaust imagery" by demonstrators at the event.

Ben Smith at Politico first reported that the ADL is sending a letter saying it is "deeply disappointed at the failure of the Republican leadership to speak out" against comparisons of health-care reeform to Nazi Germany.

The crowd, according to media reports and photographs, included attendees holding a pair of banners picturing Holocaust victims with the words "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945." 

"As the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, the Anti-Defamation League is nonpartisan and has no position on the issues underlying the health care debate," wrote ADL national director Abraham Foxman. "However, we believe that the use Nazi symbols and pictures of Nazi victims to advance a political agenda under any circumstance is inappropriate and profoundly offensive. It cheapens the suffering of survivors and causes keen and unnecessary pain to the families and friends of those murdered by the millions at Nazi concentration camps. Such imagery is also deeply upsetting to the Jewish community, and to people of good will across this nation who understand the profound evil that Nazism represented."

We urge you to use your stature and platform as a national political leader to reject and condemn the use of Holocaust imagery for political purposes, and to urge your supporters to find other ways to communicate their views," the letter concludes

Among those the letter went to are House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), the chief organizer of the event.

Spokespepeople for Boehner and Cantor have called the signs "inappropriate," while Bachmann said they were "wholly inappropriate" in a statement, saying that "sadly, some individuals chose to marginalize tragic events in human history, such as the Holocaust, by invoking imagery and labels which have no purpose in a policy debate about health care"

The full ADL letter is after the jump:[[READMORE]]

November 10, 2009The Honorable John A. Boehner
Minority Leader
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515Dear Minority Leader Boehner:

We write to urge you to condemn forcefully the invocation of Holocaust imagery such as photos of
Nazi concentration camp victims in the current health care debate. We were appalled that such images were held up by protesters at a press conference called and organized by Republicans at the United States Capitol last week, and deeply disappointed at the failure of the Republican leadership to speak out against such comparisons.

As the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, the Anti-Defamation League is non-partisan and has no position on the issues underlying the health care debate. However, we believe that the use Nazi symbols and pictures of Nazi victims to advance a political agenda under any circumstance is inappropriate and profoundly offensive. It cheapens the suffering of survivors and causes keen and unnecessary pain to the families and friends of those murdered by the millions at Nazi concentration camps. Such imagery is also deeply upsetting to the Jewish community, and to people of good will across this nation who understand the profound evil that Nazism represented.

Reasonable people can and do differ about health care reform. However, as divided as our nation may be on the best way to effectuate such reform, there should be absolutely no division when it comes to condemning the use of the Holocaust and Holocaust imagery for domestic political purposes.

ADL has consistently objected to the use of the Holocaust in this way, no matter who is invoking it, and no matter for what political purpose it is being invoked. We cannot and will not in good conscience stand by and allow the enormity of the Holocaust — the death of six million — to be invoked in a way that trivializes the memory of those who perished.

We urge you to use your stature and platform as a national political leader to reject and condemn the use of Holocaust imagery for political purposes, and to urge your supporters to find other ways to communicate their views.

Sincerely,Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
Anti-Defamation League