By Joe Gandelman
The Moderate Voice
SAN DIEGO — It’s a comment Jews sometimes hear from people who are antisemitic when Adolf Hitler’s name comes up: “Hitler did a lot of good things,” often said by folks who downplay or with unpure motives “balance” the fact of the Holocaust. There are a slew of new books coming out with revelations about the Trump administration — and an upcoming one quotes then-President Donald Trump as saying: “Well, Hitler did a lot good things,” shocking his then-Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general.
The Guardian got a copy of the new book, Frankly We Did Win This Election by Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal. According to The Guardian, Bender reports that Trump made these comments while on a trip to celebrate the anniversary of the first world war’s ending. Kelly was reportedly “stunned” and reminded Trump “which countries were on which side during the conflict” and “connected the dots from the first world war to the second world war and all of Hitler’s atrocities”.
Bender writes that Trump denied he ever said it but “unnamed sources” — and the way journalism works that could mean Kelly himself or those close to him — said Kelly told Trump he was wrong, but Trump insisted pointing to Germany’s economic recovery under Hitler.
Bender writes that “Kelly pushed back again and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.” He warned Trump that even if his claims were true he couldn’t “ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”
This isn’t the first time allegations have been made about Trump giving Hitler a pass on having the most brutal and criminal regime in history. There have been numerous articles over the year contending Trump had expressed admiration for Hitler — and reports that his ex-wife claimed Trump had a copy of Mein Kamph and would read it.
If you’re Jewish chances are somewhere along the line you’ve heard someone who doesn’t like Jews say “Hitler did a lot of good things.”
It’s different if it’s coming from a history professor.
Many people who say “Hitler did a lot of good things” don’t know much about history.
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Joe Gandelman is editor-in-chief of The Moderate Voice, which shares stories with San Diego Jewish World under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association.