Ben Carson flunks middle school history
If only Anne Frank had a gun. Then, according to the logic of Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, she would have been able to better fight against the Nazis.
Carson has come under criticism for this astonishing statement in his new book, “A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties.” On CNN recently, host Wolf Blitzer read this excerpt:
“German citizens were disarmed by their government in the late 1930s and by the late 1940s Hitler’s regime had mercilessly slaughtered 6 million Jews and numerous others whom they considered inferior. Through a combination of removing guns and disseminating deceitful propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.”
Carson defended the statement during the interview, expressing a view about gun control and Nazi Germany that is embraced by some gun rights advocates — all of whom apparently didn’t learn, or forgot, what kids learn as early as middle school about the Nazi war machine.
As has been noted by many in recent days, Jews were not allowed to carry guns under Nazi law, so the notion that disarmament helped increase the victim totals is nonsensical. Jews resisted as best as their circumstances allowed. Middle school kids learn this. Take for example, the start of this lesson plan for middle school teachers with material largely from the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida’s Middle School Teaching Trunk:
Unit Four: Jewish Resistance Background Information for Teachers:When studying about the Holocaust, students frequently ask, “Why didn’t the Jews fight back?” It may appear at first glance that Jews didn’t resist, but this is not true. They resisted as much as any other group under Nazi occupation. Most often, they had to act under circumstances that could hardly have been less suited for such activities. They used the methods available to them according to local situations and individual circumstances. Resistance was usually carried out against great odds and with incomplete information about the overall situation. They had little or no outside help and often had to contend with the anti-Semitism of others who were also under occupation.
Most Jewish armed resistance took place after 1942, as a desperate effort, after it became clear to those who resisted that the Nazis had murdered most of their families and their coreligionists. Despite great obstacles (such as lack of armaments and training, conducting operations in a hostile zone, reluctanceBen Carson flunks middle school history - The Washington Post: