Yahoo News Republican official apologises for cartoon comparing order to wear masks to Nazi extermination camps
A Kansas Republican official has apologised following the publication in his newspaper of a political cartoon likening face mask requirements to the Holocaust.
The Anderson County Review, a rural newspaper in Kansas owned by the county GOP chair Dane Hicks, ran a cartoon suggesting compliance with state face mask mandates was akin to stepping onto a train bound for a concentration camp.
The cartoon features an image of Kansas governor Laura Kelly wearing a face mask with a Star of David on it. She is superimposed over a photo of Jewish people boarding trains meant for concentration camps. Below the image a caption reads: "Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car."
Ms Kelly issued a statewide order on Friday requiring all Kansans to wear face masks in public spaces.
According to The Washington Post, Mr Hicks decided to remove his cartoon after it generated substantial criticism online.
From America’s heartland, for Independence Day:
An anti-Semitic cartoon published in the Anderson County Review (Kansas).
Publisher Dane Hicks is also Anderson county’s Republican party chairman.
This is the party of @realDonaldTrump #Fascism #Antisemitism pic.twitter.com/1wHawydt7T— David Weiss, MD (@DavidWeissMD)
"After some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish leaders in the US and abroad, I can acknowledge the imagery in my recent editorial cartoon ... was deeply hurtful to members of a culture who've been dealt plenty of hurt throughout history - people to whom I never desired to be hurtful in the illustration of my point," Mr Hicks wrote in a statement on.
Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois was among those offering feedback on the cartoon. Mr Pritzker condemned the image on Twitter on Saturday .
"Another disgusting display by ignorant Republicans who fail to understand that their propaganda is costing lives. I helped build the Illinois Holocaust Museum to fight exactly this kind of hate," Mr Pritzker said. "America is better than this."
Ms Kelly called the cartoon "deeply offensive" and the state's Senate minority leader Anthony Hensley said it was "appalling".
Mr Hicks initially defended his cartoon, referring to his detractors as "liberal Marxist parasites" and claiming that "as a traditional American, they are my enemy".
Further discussions about the cartoon eventually convinced Mr Hicks to remove it and apologise.
"It's apparent I previously lacked an adequate understanding of the severity of their experience and the pain of its images. To that end, I am removing the cartoon with apologies to those so directly affected," Mr Hicks wrote.
It is not the first time a Republican official has likened a coronavirus-related state order to Nazi authoritarianism.
In March, Colorado's Republican House minority leader Patrick Neville compared governor Jared Polis' stay-at-home order to Nazism and claimed it would lead to a "Gestapo-like mentality".
Mr Polis, who is Jewish, took exception to the comparison in an emotional reply during a press conference.
"Well, first of all, as a Jewish American who lost family in the Holocaust, I'm offended by any comparison to Nazism," he said. "We act to save lives - the exact opposite of the slaughter of six million Jews and many gypsies and Catholics and gays and lesbians and Russians and so many others."
