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B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

A Tennessee state lawmaker’s comments comparing the Affordable Care Act to the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany are contemptible and ignorant.

Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield wrote on his blog post: “Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign-ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of mandatory sign-ups for ‘train rides’ for Jews in the ’40s.”

Nazi imagery should never be invoked for political purposes. The systemic attempt to annihilate an entire population cannot be fodder for anyone trying to make political points.

When criticized publicly for his remarks, Campfield responded that “some people have missed the point,” and that he stands by what he said. It is Campfield who misses the point. The use of Nazi imagery and language to disparage political opponents undermines the magnitude of the Holocaust and trivializes the murder of six million Jews.

Campfield needs to educate himself on the horror of Nazi atrocities. He doesn’t have to go far. The children of Whitwell, Tenn., launched the Paper Clips Project in 1998 as a way to learn about tolerance. The children began collecting paper clips to symbolize the six million Jews killed by Hitler and the Nazi machine. After gaining worldwide attention for the project, they have collected at least 30 million paper clips to date.