Historians, politicians and social media influencers have rebuked MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show following the failure of guest host Ali Velshi on March 11 to challenge remarks that effectively erased crimes committed by Nazi Germany against its own citizens, including almost 200,000 German Jews. In a segment about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Stanford University Professor Michael McFaul had falsely claimed that Adolf Hitler didn’t kill any “ethnic Germans and German-speaking people.”
A day before the show aired, on March 10, HonestReporting in an article highlighted how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is fueling distortion of the historical record.
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“I was just on Ukrainian television 30 minutes ago […] and one of the commentators said something interesting about how horrific this war is,” McFaul, who served as the US Ambassador to Russia between 2012 and 2014, relayed to Velshi on the Friday evening broadcast, adding: “And remember, these are people who suffered under fascism, that fought the Nazis. The Nazis came, then the Red Army came back through.”
The former diplomat then went on to paraphrase a comparison between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler: “One of the Russian journalists said, you know, there’s one difference between Hitler, when he was coming in, and Putin. Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans; he didn’t kill German-speaking people.”
Don’t let MSNBC and Michael @McFaul memory hole his outrageous comments.
“There’s one difference between Hitler, when he was coming in, and Putin. Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans, he didn’t kill German-speaking people. That’s a very, I think people need to remember…" pic.twitter.com/UL957LyXBJ
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) March 12, 2022
Related Reading: Whoopsie, Whoopi: Hollywood Star Under Fire for Latest Anti-Jewish Remarks
To set the historical record straight: of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, between 160,000 and 180,000 were German Jews. In addition, Hitler’s Germany murdered thousands of German Sinti and Roma, as well as Germans with disabilities, German LGBTQ people, German political opponents, and many others.
Yet Ali Velshi failed to call out McFaul’s falsification of a historical fact and instead moved to the next question. Moreover, the Rachel Maddow Show subsequently disseminated McFaul’s incorrect claims on social media without any attribution.
McFaul’s Memory Hole Generates Backlash
“I’d like to apologize for what an utter sh[*]tshow @msnbc has turned into. To let this air, without any correction – and THEN tweet it? Shameful,” former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann responded. German politician Julia Schramm also chimed in, reminding MSNBC that “Hitler put Germans to death camps for being communist, JEWS, ‘asocial’ and so on. Jews were german.” Schramm added: “This is one of the worst takes I have seen so far. I think I’ve never tweeted this but SHAME ON YOU.”
It was only after the intervention of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum that MSNBC took down its video — over 10 hours after it was initially posted. “On a factual note: Hitler did kill ethnic Germans & German-speaking people: those who opposed the Nazi regime, those who resisted, those who did not fit into the ‘Weltanschauung’. He ordered the murder of people with different disabilities & finally the murder of German Jewry,” the Polish museum noted.
Learn more about:
🔹concentration camps: https://t.co/BECzWhdSU6
🔹gay men under the Nazi regime: https://t.co/TkBC8o8X9Y
🔹T4 operation: https://t.co/2yYIOFCY0u
🔹genocide of the Roma: https://t.co/K9FOW49bpj— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) March 12, 2022
On the morning of March 12, the Rachel Maddow Show finally posted a tweet saying that “the historical record is clear. Hitler killed millions of Germans,” while expressing regret for “tweet[ing] out part of an inaccurate statement made last night by former Ambassador Michael McFaul without attribution.”
Though the Stanford professor himself initially doubled down on his comments, McFaul later also apologized, admitting he was “mistaken” when he “implied” that Hitler did not kill Germans. “I slipped late last night and violated an unwritten taboo– never compare Hitler with anyone. I agree. He was incomparably evil. I won’t do it again,” McFaul wrote.
McFaul did not respond when asked if he would stay on as a regular contributor to MSNBC.
Adolph Hitler: Jewish Germans aren't really German.
Stanford Professor and totally not racist brain genius Michael McFaul (@McFaul ) : "THANK YOU!" pic.twitter.com/W53msoJnTn— Elias Cepeda (@EliasCepeda) March 12, 2022
Meanwhile, on March 10, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan became the latest media pundit to compare Israel’s fight against US-designated terror groups in the Gaza Strip to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Wonder how people in Gaza feel about the intensifying debate over no-fly zones in Western capitals right now,” Hasan postulated in a tweet that received almost 1,200 retweets and 6,300 likes.
As HonestReporting outlined in a March 1 article, this parallel between the Middle East’s only democracy and Russia — which is reportedly attempting to remove Ukraine’s democratically elected government — is both bizarre and baseless.
You can register your complaint with MSNBC by sending an email to [email protected] and [email protected].
Related Reading: How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine is Fueling Holocaust Distortion
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