Brazil's president resurrects the zombie claim that Nazism was a leftist movement
By Elyse Samuels
May 7 at 3:00 AM
"There is no doubt. Socialist party, how is it? Germany’s National Socialist Party.”
— Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, April 2, 2019
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said there’s “no doubt” Nazism was a leftist movement shortly after visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel, on April 2. Reporters asked Bolsonaro if he agreed with his foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo, who previously claimed the Nazis were leftists.
Bolsonaro justified his answer by pointing to the Nazi’s full party name in 1930s and 1940s Germany: the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. While the party name included the word “socialist,” most of its political ideologies were not considered left-wing. Yad Vashem’s website states that Nazism in fact grew out of radical right-wing groups. Once the Nazis gained power in Germany, they arrested and in many cases murdered socialists, communists and others who opposed the party.
Bolsonaro sparked further controversy later in April when he said, “We can forgive. But we cannot forget,” speaking of the Holocaust at a meeting with evangelical pastors in Rio de Janeiro on April 11.
Yad Vashem’s president, Reuven Rivlin, appeared to respond to the comments on Twitter writing, “We will never forgive and never forget.” He went on to address political leaders’ responsibility in shaping public opinion, in what seemed to be a targeted response to Bolsonaro.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/07/brazils-president-resurrects-zombie-claim-that-nazism-was-leftist-movement/
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