How Hatred Enables Tyranny: Nazi German Techniques Re-applied

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it’s worth reflecting on a disturbing pattern: how propaganda has been used to vilify Jews in different eras. The lessons we thought we learned from World War II— about the dangers of hateful narratives—seem to be fading. Today, some of the same tactics used by the Nazis are being deployed by Islamist/ Marxist movements and their supporters to turn public opinion against Israel, with worrying consequences.

A copy Adolf Hitler’s sick autobiography, “Mein Kampf,” was found inside a child’s bedroom at a Hamas base in the
Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities said. The copy of the Nazi leader’s 1925 autobiography outlining his deadly journey into antisemitism and the genocide of millions of Jews and other ethnic minorities during the Holocaust included “annotations and highlights,”  The book was discovered among the personal belongs of one of the terrorists,” the IDF said in the online post. “Hamas embraces the ideology of Hitler, the one responsible for the annihilation of the Jewish People.” - NY Post 11/12/23

What Happened in Nazi Germany

The Nazis used propaganda to convince Germans that Jews were the root of society’s problems. Newspapers, posters, and films portrayed Jewish people as subhuman and dangerous, blaming them for economic woes and cultural decay. These messages played on centuries-old prejudices in Europe, where anti-Semitic stereotypes had taken root in Christian doctrine and culture. The propaganda worked. Ordinary Germans accepted these lies, enabling the persecution and eventual genocide of six million Jews. 

How It’s Happening Again

Fast forward to today, and we see a similar playbook being used by Hamas and its allies, including Qatar. Through modern media and social networks, they spread the message that Israel is an oppressor, responsible for all Palestinian suffering. Casualty figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health—controlled by Hamas—are often inflated or misleading, but they’re repeated by Western media without much scrutiny. Staged events and manipulated images also flood the internet, painting Israel as a brutal aggressor.

Phrases like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or “Free Palestine” have become rallying cries in protests worldwide. But few stop to question the implications—these slogans call for the elimination of Israel. Meanwhile, Israel’s side of the story, including its right to defend itself against rocket attacks and terrorism, is often ignored.

Why It Matters

Just as Nazi propaganda dehumanized Jews to justify their persecution, today’s anti-Israel narratives have made it acceptable to vilify and scapegoat Jewish people once again. In cities across the West, we’ve seen people tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis, vandalizing Jewish schools and synagogues, and chanting slogans that call for Israel’s destruction.

This isn’t just about spreading lies and hatred; it’s about how those lies pave the way for authoritarian tyranny. The Islamo-Marxist scapegoating of the Jewish state echoes Nazi tactics: using propaganda to consolidate power by uniting people against a common enemy. In Nazi Germany, this propaganda enabled National Socialists to dominate Europe, suppress dissent, and commit atrocities not only against Jews but against all who opposed their rule. Today, Hamas and its allies exploit similar methods to justify their authoritarian agendas and silence diverse voices within their societies.

The Bigger Picture

What’s most alarming is how easily the media and the public have bought into this propaganda. On this solemn day of remembrance, we should ask ourselves: Have we really learned the lessons of the Holocaust? The Nazis taught the world that scapegoating Jews isn’t just dangerous for them—it’s a tool for tyranny that harms everyone. If we fail to recognize and challenge these tactics, we risk enabling the rise of new authoritarian movements that use hatred and division to manipulate society under absolute power.

Propaganda Then and Now: Lessons From Nazi Germany to Today’s Anti-Israel Narratives

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it’s worth reflecting on a disturbing pattern: how propaganda has been used to vilify Jews in different eras. The lessons we thought we learned from World War II—about the dangers of hateful narratives—seem to be fading. Today, some of the same tactics used by the Nazis are being deployed by groups like Hamas and their supporters to turn public opinion against Israel, with worrying consequences.

A copy Adolf Hitler’s sick autobiography, “Mein Kampf,” was found inside a child’s bedroom at a Hamas base in the
Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities said. The copy of the Nazi leader’s 1925 autobiography outlining his deadly journey into antisemitism and the genocide of millions of Jews and other ethnic minorities during the Holocaust included “annotations and highlights,” The book was discovered among the personal belongs of one of the terrorists,” the IDF said in the online post. “Hamas embraces the ideology of Hitler, the one responsible for the annihilation of the Jewish People.” - NY Post 11/12/23

What Happened in Nazi Germany

The Nazis used propaganda to convince Germans that Jews were the root of society’s problems. Newspapers, posters, and films portrayed Jewish people as subhuman and dangerous, blaming them for economic woes and cultural decay. These messages played on centuries-old prejudices in Europe, where anti-Semitic stereotypes had taken root in Christian doctrine and culture. The propaganda worked. Ordinary Germans accepted these lies, enabling the persecution and eventual genocide of six million Jews. 

How It’s Happening Again

Fast forward to today, and we see a similar playbook being used by Hamas and its allies, including Qatar. Through modern media and social networks, they spread the message that Israel is an oppressor, responsible for all Palestinian suffering. Casualty figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health—controlled by Hamas—are often inflated or misleading, but they’re repeated by Western media without much scrutiny. Staged events and manipulated images also flood the internet, painting Israel as a brutal aggressor.

Phrases like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or “Free Palestine” have become rallying cries in protests worldwide. But few stop to question the implications—these slogans call for the elimination of Israel. Meanwhile, Israel’s side of the story, including its right to defend itself against rocket attacks and terrorism, is often ignored.

Why It Matters

Just as Nazi propaganda dehumanized Jews to justify their persecution, today’s anti-Israel narratives have made it acceptable to vilify and scapegoat Jewish people once again. In cities across the West, we’ve seen people tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis, vandalizing Jewish schools and synagogues, and chanting slogans that call for Israel’s destruction.

This isn’t just about spreading lies and hatred; it’s about how those lies pave the way for authoritarian tyranny. The Islamo-Marxist scapegoating of the Jewish state echoes Nazi tactics: using propaganda to consolidate power by uniting people against a common enemy. In Nazi Germany, this propaganda enabled National Socialists to dominate Europe, suppress dissent, and commit atrocities not only against Jews but against all who opposed their rule. Today, Hamas and its allies exploit similar methods to justify their authoritarian agendas and silence diverse voices within their societies.

The Bigger Picture

What’s most alarming is how easily the media and the public have bought into this propaganda. On this solemn day of remembrance, we should ask ourselves: Have we really learned the lessons of the Holocaust? The Nazis taught the world that scapegoating Jews isn’t just dangerous for them—it’s a tool for tyranny that harms everyone. If we fail to recognize and challenge these tactics, we risk enabling the rise of new authoritarian movements that use hatred and division to manipulate society under absolute power.

WWII's Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - lessons on 80th-year commemoration

Iconic photo (colorized) of German soldiers shipping Jewish families from the
Warsaw Ghetto off to be murdered at the Treblinka Concentration Camp,  1943

80-years ago this month, young Jewish slave-labor inmates of the Nazi-imposed ghetto in Warsaw, aware of their limited survival chances (and despite their limited access to weapons) rebelled for 29 days (beginning April 19-May 16, 1943) against the Nazi army deporting residents to the Treblinka death camp.

Though ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the Germans from entering the ghetto, the Jewish people's strategic and brave fighting showed that even amidst oppression, they could unite and fight back. The Uprising left a lasting legacy. It was the largest Jewish uprising in the Second World War and it inspired Jewish youth – in ghettos from Lvov to Będzin to Białystok, and in camps including Treblinka and Sobibor – to resist. It was an act of utmost courage – not least because the men and women fighting knew from the beginning that they had no hope of victory. They had been forced by the sheer inhumanity of the situation created by the occupying Germans to choose death in combat rather than in the camps.

Jews staved-off Nazis during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

In this video interview at the Holocaust Musuem L.A., Rabbi Moshe Cohn, who heads Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies discusses the significance of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

 
 

Polish-born Jewish man, Ben Lesser, age 94, explains how in 1940, Polish Christians, (empowered by Germany's National Socialist Army) confiscated ordinary Jewish citizens' businesses, dispossessed them from their homes, stole their homes, and concentrated them in racial ghettos. Mr. Lesser explains how the Jewish ghettos (an overcrowded apartment district where lucky folks worked as slaves inside or outside the walls to avoid deportation to concentration and death camps) differed from today's socio-economic ghetto neighborhoods. Most Jewish people were deported as slaves to concentration camps - where they were labored (ususally to death), if they survived (unlike many women and children) being gassed to death upon arrival or shot and incinerated.

The Warsaw ghetto uprising was the very first civilian uprising in occupied Europe, and the largest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. There were attempts at armed resistance in at least 100 other ghettos, and among Jewish partisans, who engaged in sabotage and guerilla warfare.

Holocaust's lessons being un-taught? Survivor of Nazi-labor camp and Israeli-American relate their views

UK schools are eliminating Holocaust history from curriculum- due to pressure from Muslims and their anti-Zionist, leftist sympathizers. US statistics show shocking ignorance about Holocaust among young people.

Israeli-American Girl Scout, Sivan Barashi, returned from a Scouts' trip to the Auschwitz Museum in Poland with a sense of the scope of the institutionalized genocide which she feels is not being adequately addressed in American schools' history curricula. Why might the subject discriminatorily be de-emphasized by Christians and/or liberals in public (and private) middle and secondary school education?

Nonagenarian, Daniel Szafran, survived the Nazi genocide of European Jewry as a slave laborer. Living in Las Vegas, he met with a small group of Israeli-American Girl Scouts who took an educational trip to the Auschwitz camp - where he was incarcerated. He doesn't feel that Holocaust education is emphasized sufficiently in America or even in Israel. 

Mr. Natan Barashy bemoans leftist influence in minimizing history resulting in the Holocaust in educational curricula. He also condemns Democratic Socialists throughout the world buying-into the libel which reverses Israel's defense against Islamist-Imperialist, Iranian-armed, Palestinians as "aggressive" - but supporting the anti-Semitic Muslim world, religiously mandated to annihilate the Jews of the world in a Muslim-led Holocaust against Israel. 

On the 78th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz death camp

Full Film: The Path to Nazi Genocide

Film Chapters:  Prologue (Starts at 00:00) 

Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918–1933 (Starts at 00:58) 

Building a National Community, 1933–1936 (Starts at 12:22) 

From Citizens to Outcasts, 1933–1938 (Starts at 18:12) World 

War II and the Holocaust, 1939–1945 (Starts at 24:34) 

Sources and Credits (Starts at 37:25)

"Netanyahu: Allies could have saved 4 million Jews if they’d bombed death camps in 1942" The Times of Israel, 4/24/17
 

Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu condemned int'l complacency
to earlier intel of Nazi's mass murdering of Jewish people 
at Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance ceremony 

"In bitter Holocaust Remembrance Day speech citing new UN documents, Israel's PM castigates global indifference 81 years ago, says it persists today.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday launched a blistering assault on Allied policy during World War II, saying world powers’ failure to bomb the Nazi concentration camps from 1942 cost the lives of four million Jews and millions of others.

Citing recently released UN documents that show the Allies were aware of the scale of the Holocaust in 1942, some two years earlier than previously assumed, Netanyahu said in a speech marking Holocaust Remembrance Day that this new research assumed “a terrible significance.”

Film stills from "What the Allies Knew" by Virginie Linhart,
produced by Fabienne Servan-Schreiber and Cinétévé

“If the powers in 1942 had acted against the death camps — and all that was needed was repeated bombing of the camps — had they acted then, they could have saved 4 million Jews and millions of other people,” he said at the official state ceremony marking the start of the memorial day.

Allied declined to bomb the railways which
which transported Jews to the camps daily

“The powers knew, and they did not act,” he told the audience at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. “When terrible crimes were being committed against the Jews, when our brothers and sisters were being sent to the furnaces,” he went on, “the powers knew and did not act.”

In a bleak and bitter address, the Israeli prime minister said that the Holocaust was enabled by three factors: the vast hatred of the Jews, global indifference to the horrors, and “the terrible weakness of our people in the Diaspora.” 

Iran's "World without Zionism" (photo: BlazingCatFur)

Anti-Semitism had not disappeared, and “it would be naive to think” that it would do so in the foreseeable future, he said. It was being exacerbated by “hatred from the East,” led by Iran and the Islamic State, he added.

"Bombing Auschwitz" 75th Anniversary Preview: The Great Moral Dilemma of the 20th Century

In May 1944, Rabbi Michael Weissmandl sent the Auschwitz Protocol, along with a plea for help and a demand for Allied air forces to bomb Auschwitz, to Roswell McClelland at the War Refugee Board in Switzerland.

Should the Allies have risked killing Auschwitz prisoners and bombed the camp to stop future atrocities? Join historians, survivors and experts as they consider one of the great moral dilemmas of the 20th century.
 
Watch Secrets of the Dead on PBS Check your local PBS listings.

D-Day to V-E Day: World War II continued for almost 11 months after the successful Normandy landings in France on June 6, 1944, commonly known as D-Day.

American troops liberating Dachau Concentration Camp

At "The Liberators" documentary screening by the Zachor Foundation, Holocaust survivors, Ben Lesser and Joshua Kaufman discuss their reunions with the Yankee soldiers who liberated them from Dachau Concentration Camp.

   

Czech Republic's Consul General Pavel Sepelak and Prof. Abraham Sion of Ariel University in Samaria discuss the Allies' mistake of sacrificing Czechoslovakia to delay war with Nazi Germany.