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A former U.S. ambassador to Russia told The Washington Post that he apologized for comments that appeared to inaccurately minimize Nazi Germany’s persecution of Germans.
Speaking to the “Rachel Maddow Show” on Friday night, Michael McFaul, now a professor of political science at Stanford University, said that “one difference between [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [German Nazi Party Chancellor Adolph] Hitler is that Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans. He didn’t kill German-speaking people … [Putin] slaughters the very people he said he has come to liberate.”
McFaul’s comments spread online Saturday morning, generating outrage at what critics say was the omission of the many Germans who were murdered by the Nazis, such as those who were also Jewish, queer, Roma or physically and intellectually disabled, as well as political opponents and others opposed to Nazi rule. A core tenet of Nazi ideology was that Jews were racially inferior and could not also be German.
McFaul told The Washington Post that “was not my intention at all.”
He said that right before joining the “Maddow Show” he was on Ukrainian TV, where a Ukrainian journalist first drew the Hitler contrast within the specific context of Putin’s bombardments of majority Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine, such as the cities of Mariupol and Kharkiv. Putin falsely claimed he invaded Ukraine to stop a genocide of Russian speakers.
Moving from Ukrainian TV to the “Rachel Maddow Show,” McFaul said he “made a mistake” by paraphrasing the comment during a similar discussion of Putin’s attacks against Russian and Russian-speaking Ukrainians without thinking through how it would sound.
Before McFaul issued an apology and clarification midmorning Saturday, his comments became a source of controversy online.
“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,’ ” or the Nazi worldview, the Poland-based Auschwitz Memorial tweeted in response to a clip of McFaul’s comments shared by the “Rachel Maddow Show’s” account.
Across Europe, 11 million people, among them 6 million Jews, were killed by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II.
By midmorning Saturday, the “Rachel Maddow Show’s” Twitter account said it had deleted its earlier tweet with the “inaccurate statement.”
“The historical record is clear,” the show said. “Hitler killed millions of Germans.”
“I was referring to ETHNIC Germans in countries invaded by Hitler (the parallel to Putin & ethnic Russians in Ukraine),” he said in one tweet. “Stop twisting my words please & focus on the present evil.”
“I made a mistake,” he said. “I apologized. I honestly did not know that Hitler purposely slaughtered ETHNIC Germans in countries he invaded … I am now learning more and appreciate those who are providing reading suggestions.”
