World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S.Lauder sharply condemned comments made by a Republican Congresswoman from Illinois Mary Miller after a video surfaced from a rally outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington showed her telling the crowd that “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.
She added: Fill your children’s minds with what is true and right and noble, and then they can overcome evil with good because they can actually discern between what is evil and what is good.”
“It is simply outrageous and obscene for anyone to hold out Hitler, who perpetrated the greatest genocide in history, as a role model for any reason,’’ said Lauder. ‘’One might expect this from white supremacists or neo-Nazis, but hearing the words “Hitler was right” from the mouth of a member of the United States Congress is beyond acceptable behavior by any standards,” he added.
Margot McGowan Staebler, a law student at Michigan State University, posted the video on Twitter of the Congresswoman making the remark.
“Hitler wasn’t right on anything—and invoking his name in this or any other context is wildly offensive & disrespects the millions who perished due to the Nazis’ hateful, genocidal regime. An apology is the least you can do for your constituents & our country,” tweeted Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
Democratic Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker called “unfathomable and disgusting” Miller’s comments.
He warned of an “evil streak” in the Illinois GOP.
“Let me be clear. Hitler got nothing right,” Pritzker stated. “This reprehensible rhetoric has no place in our politics. Illinois Republicans cannot allow this to stand and must condemn this vile, evil streak in their party. If Representative Miller was the least bit interested in history, she would visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center to learn just how wrong Hitler really was.”
Adam Kinzinger, another Republican member of the Congress for Illinois, also denounced Miller’s comments.“I outright condemn this garbage,” he wrote.