Trump was not America’s Hitler | Opinion

In an op-ed last week, David Lee Preston, himself a child of Holocaust survivors, argued that equating Donald Trump with Adolf Hitler did not trivialize Hitler. But as someone who is also a descendant of Holocaust survivors, I believe that making the Hitler-Trump comparison is a divisive and inciting label that promotes a false narrative.

My father, who was living in Berlin in 1938, was pulled out of his uncle’s men’s store, then watched his uncle murdered in the street and his store looted and vandalized. He and his cousin were incarcerated in a concentration camp in Germany, only to be released through pressure from the League of Nations, convincing Hitler at that time to send the Jews who were living in Germany back to their countries of origin. Those same Jews would be exterminated once Hitler invaded those countries. Kristallnacht came about because Hitler and Joseph Goebbels had successfully dehumanized and stirred up the embers of anti-Semitism that he had stoked for more than a decade after he wrote Mein Kampf. None of this, I emphasize, nor anything like it happened in America during the past four years.

» READ MORE: Is it wrong to compare Trump to Hitler? No. | Opinion

Whatever errors in judgment were made by President Trump on Jan. 6 (or during the last four years), the emerging evidence is that the violence of that day had been preplanned and had begun before his fateful words were spoken. For sure, he may be held responsible for not recognizing that his words could embolden those already committed to mayhem and violence. To suggest he is the modern version of Hitler, however, does trivialize and in and of itself incites violence. No one in modern history can be compared to Hitler in his single-minded determination to exterminate Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and any undesirables (yea, “deplorables”) who did not meet the qualifications for his Aryan and fascist club. Such analogies are obscene and inflammatory.

In November, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour apologized when she drew parallels between Trump’s presidency and Kristallnacht, when she said: “I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts. Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history.”

My plea to all is to tone down the rhetoric. Avoid labels that are both historically incongruous and inciting to baser or ignorant minds. Criticize and speak your mind in an open discourse; be able to advocate honestly but also to tolerate dissent. Our nation was founded with democracy as its basis and remains a beacon to the world. Be aware that when labels are casually placed upon those with whom you do not agree, do not look like, or do not believe what you believe, you are polarizing and dividing, and in the extreme, it is you who are indirectly causing insurrection, chaos, and anarchy. It is only when unfettered that a true Hitler-like enemy may arise and advance his murderous genocidal agenda against Jews and all other branded enemies of the state.

Norman Perlberger is an attorney, author, teacher of Torah and Holocaust studies, former president and founder of Phila. Chapter of Children of Holocaust Survivors, former chairman of FJA Men’s Organizations, WCAU newswriter, radio host of “God is Listening”, and present copresident, Philadelphia Chapter, Zionist Organization of America.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this piece mistakenly characterized Amanpour’s apology as relating to events on Jan. 6. It has been corrected.