Buenos Aires – Jewish groups have criticized Argentine President Alberto Fernández for comparing the number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Holocaust for the second time in three months.
While speaking at a diversity and inclusion seminar for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) last week, Fernández said: “We still don’t know how many people have died in the pandemic. The United Nations says between 6 million and 10 million people have died. We don’t have the exact, precise number. But anyway, we know that the pandemic has killed between one and two Holocausts. It’s a ton of people.”
The comment was immediately condemned by DAIA, the umbrella organization for Argentina’s Jewish community; the Anti-Defamation League; and B’nai Brith International.
“Again since the first magistracy of the Argentine Republic, and at the closing of the CELAC summit, the pandemic and its devastating effects have been compared to the unique and incomparable tragedy that the Holocaust meant,” DAIA tweeted.
B’nai Brith International wrote in a tweet that the comparison between the pandemic and the Holocaust are “simply unacceptable, and show disrespect to the victims of the #Holocaust. Nothing compares to this unique tragedy in the history of mankind.”
