--- title: Ben Carson's Holocaust Analogy Is Worse Than Ignorant description: Citing Hitler to make a political argument has become a rhetorical disease canonical: https://time.com/4068425/ben-carson-holocaust-analogy/ author: Rabbi David Wolpe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-09T19:15:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:32:16.874Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Ben Carson's Holocaust Analogy Is Worse Than Ignorant—It Blames Victims og:description: Citing Hitler to make a political argument has become a rhetorical disease og:url: https://time.com/4068425/ben-carson-holocaust-analogy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44288895b04712d5/698867b08e06012cae462ca6/carson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Ben Carson, 2016 Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a rally at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan, U.S., on Sept. 23, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Carson's Holocaust Analogy Is Worse Than Ignorant—It Blames Victims twitter:description: Citing Hitler to make a political argument has become a rhetorical disease twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44288895b04712d5/698867b08e06012cae462ca6/carson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ben Carson's Holocaust Analogy Is Worse Than Ignorant—It Blames Victims > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=bd3fae78-b0ab-45dd-9f5b-721ce2d0601b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ben Carson Says the Holocaust Would Be "Greatly Diminished" if Jews Had Guns [Watch (HLS stream): Ben Carson Says the Holocaust Would Be "Greatly Diminished" if Jews Had Guns](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1bSzTOLl.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2015-10-09. Ben Carson Says the Holocaust Would Be "Greatly Diminished" if Jews Had Guns_ by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe Oct 9, 2015 7:15 PM UTC Ben Carson Says the Holocaust Would Be "Greatly Diminished" if Jews Had Guns by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe Oct 9, 2015 7:15 PM UTC A rhetorical disease stalks the land. It seems to strike at random and leaves its victims hapless and foolish. It’s called Holocaust Analogy Syndrome. And presidential candidates seem particularly susceptible. An early sufferer was Hillary Clinton, who last year [compared](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/03/05/hillary-clinton-says-putins-action-are-like-what-hitler-did-back-in-the-30s/) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine to Adolf Hitler’s actions during World War II. [Mike Huckabee](http://time.com/3973389/mike-huckabee-holocaust-iran-deal/) caught it this summer when he said that the Iran deal was like marching Israelis to the “[door of the oven](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iran-nuclear-talks/mike-huckabee-iran-deal-will-lead-israelis-door-oven-n398816).” The latest victim, afflicted again, is Ben Carson, who used an [Nazi analogy](http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/politics/carson-stands-by-nazi-germany-comparsion/) to compare the U.S. to the Third Reich last year. The neurosurgeon said Thursday that if Germany’s [Jews had only been armed](http://gawker.com/hitler-obsessed-ben-carson-just-wont-quit-the-nazi-talk-1735553305), the Holocaust might have been lessened. Carson’s argument combines all the worst features of blaming the victims and demonstrates a lamentable lack of historical knowledge. As a practical matter, the argument has no merit. As the Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt [points out](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ben-carson-suggests-holocaust-jews-armed/story?id=34349693), the few Jews that might have been armed and resisted would easily have been overwhelmed and killed. Indeed, they would likely have fallen victim even sooner had all their neighbors—so many of them collaborators—also been armed. More than a third of all Jews murdered were [killed by bullets outside the camps](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/world/europe/a-light-on-a-vast-toll-of-jews-killed-away-from-the-death-camps.html?%5Fr=0), and those who were deported had some slight chance of survival. Those who were shot and left in ditches in villages all across Eastern Europe had virtually none. Just imagine if all the villagers had guns when the Jews were targeted. (It’s also an interesting fact that the Weimer regime that preceded the Nazis had [tougher gun control laws](http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4029&context=flr) than the Nazi regime.) Increasingly prevalent in our politics is the inclination to reach for the most egregious, awful events in history as analogies. (Remember: Carson also [opined](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/10/11/ben-carson-obamacare-worst-thing-since-slavery/) that Obamacare was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”) This overreach is a malady of spiritual and intellectual sloppiness. I can oppose gun control without thinking that my position would have saved the doomed Jews of Europe, and I can oppose Obamacare without reaching back to the systematic enslavement of millions upon millions of people. To use these events is unseemly. It is insulting to those who suffered and to the intelligence of the body politic. Part of this is our own fault. In a country where all of history is reduced to a few notable events, a candidate who draws analogies about military mistakes to the Crimean war or compares a dangerous local uprising to the Sicilian Vespers is more likely to be met with puzzlement than cheers. So we reach repeatedly for historical analogies—Holocaust, slavery, the Civil War—that constitute the shared stock of knowledge. But very few things are applicable to the greatest historical cataclysms, and they shed limited light on contemporary issues. In the legal field they say hard cases make bad law. In the historical field, catastrophic events make bad analogies. So once again I will plead for a caution that no doubt will go unheeded. Suit the reference to the issue. Remember that there are still people who walk this earth with numbers on their arms who are enraged and hurt by the cavalier use of their suffering to score points. Drop discussion of the Holocaust when you are talking politics. It is inept. It is inaccurate. It is indecent. ## Transcript So I'll read a couple sentences from the book. German citizens were disarmed by their government in the late 1930s, and by the mid- 1940s Hitler's regime had mercilessly slaughtered six million Jews and numerous others Others whom they considered inferior. Through a combination of removing guns, and disseminating deceitful propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance. So what is the point you're trying to make? If there had been guns in Germany. Right. There might not have been a Holocaust? My point is, that was only one of the countries that I mentioned. There were a number of countries where tyranny reigned and before it happened, they disarmed the people. That was the point. Noah Webster said, when he was talking about tyranny, that the people of America would never suffer tyranny because they are armed So, but just clarify. If there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would six million Jews have been slaughtered? I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the the people had been armed. Because they had a powerful military machine as you know the Nazis. I understand that. They could have simply gone in and they did go in wipe out whole communities. 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