We asked what they thought of an increasingly common comparison being made, including on The Times’ own letters page: that the United States today, with one of its major political parties still supporting a former president who tried to overthrow an election he lost, might be on a course similar to Germany before the Nazis were voted into power in 1933.
This is a comparison that has been made, in various forms, by several letter writers, most recently by one reader who detected fascistic undertones in the Republican National Committee’s threat earlier this month to pull out of presidential debates. Other letter writers have likened what they see as the growing acceptance of political violence among mainstream Republicans to the “brownshirts” of 1930s Germany.
Two of the survivors wrote that the U.S. was indeed on a frightening path, another said the comparisons were dubious, and the fourth did not address the comparisons directly but expressed several worries. In response, we heard from more survivors and other readers who conveyed their appreciation for keeping the Holocaust at the forefront of our collective memory. Some expressed criticism.