Republican Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson issued an apology Thursday after he compared Washington, D.C.’s new COVID-19 vaccine requirement to the Nazi treatment of Jews in the run-up to the Holocaust.
“Bad things happen when governments dehumanize people. Sometimes, there is a next step — to systematically segregate them. Unfortunately, any reference to how the Nazis actually did that prevents a focus on anything other than the Holocaust,” Davidson said in a statement. “I appreciate my Jewish friends who have explained their perspectives and feel horrible that I offended anyone. My sincere apologies.”
For my Jewish friends, and all others, my sincere apologies. pic.twitter.com/gyZm1onCOb
— Warren Davidson (@WarrenDavidson) January 13, 2022
In response to a tweet from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser about the city’s impending vaccine mandate for restaurants, clubs, gyms and other indoor establishments, Davidson tweeted a picture of a pass issued by Nazis that allowed Germans to move freely through the country.
“Let’s recall that the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people before segregating them, segregated them before imprisoning them, imprisoned them before enslaving them, and enslaved them before massacring them,” he added.
Davidson is not the first House Republican to compare the vaccination requirements and promotional campaigns to Nazi Germany. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized in June for several comments in which she compared vaccination requirements to the Nazi order that German Jews wear a gold star to identify themselves as Jewish. She later described public health officials sent into communities to promote COVID-19 vaccines as “brown shirts.” (RELATED: ‘The Greatest Atrocity In Human History’: McCarthy Condemns Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Holocaust Comparisons)
Jewish groups have routinely condemned such comparisons, which they argue perpetuate anti-Semitism. The Auschwitz Memorial described Davidson’s remarks as “a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decay,” while the American Jewish Committee called such comparisons “immoral and offensive.”