Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins declared that America's military should be "invincible" from inside an Auschwitz gas chamber.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty ImagesRep. Clay Higgins, R-La., descends the House Steps of the Capitol after a vote on May 3, 2017.
There’s a sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp’s gas chambers.
“You are in a building where the SS murdered thousands of people,” the message, engraved in stone, reads. “Please maintain silence here: remember their suffering and show respect for their memory.”
Last week, Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins instead chose to make a promotional video inside the gas chambers.
“This is why Homeland Security must be squared away,” he says while standing next to Nazi ovens. “Why our military must be invincible.”
After seeing the video, Auschwitz representatives chastised the Congressman on Twitter.
“Everyone has the right to personal reflections,” they wrote. “However, inside a former gas chamber, there should be mournful silence. It’s not a stage.”
This is what all visitors see at the entrance to the building where first homicidal gas chambers of Auschwitz was created by the SS. pic.twitter.com/6Mm5gTkfSl
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 4, 2017
The Anne Frank Center also had some harsh words for the GOP politician.
“Congressman Higgins, Auschwitz is not a television studio,” the center’s executive director, Steven Goldstein, said in a statement. “It is the site of genocide and tragedy for the Jewish people that you have disrespected. Not only must you apologize, but you must also get the sensitivity training appropriate for your continued service in the US Congress.”
DISGUSTING. @RepClayHiggins your infomercial at Auschwitz a global disgrace. Apologize. Get sensitivity training or a new job. #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/ddjf7EhwMc
— Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) July 5, 2017
Many Americans were also offended by the video:
Today Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins will video blog from your grandparents' cemetery plots about our need for safer borders.
— Jeremy Newberger (@jeremynewberger) July 5, 2017
This is not the first time that Higgins has been the subject of controversy in recent months.
After the June terrorist attacks in London, Higgins called for a Christian war against radical Islam — suggesting that Americans should hunt and kill suspects of Islamic extremism.
“The free world…all of Christendom…is at war with Islamic horror,” he wrote, adding that every suspect of radicalized Islam should not be allowed in the US. “Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”
A disturbing statement from someone who claims to have learned a lesson from World War II.
Clay Higgins, who openly called for genocide a few weeks ago, posted a video of him touring Auschwitz and talking about homeland security. ???? pic.twitter.com/OBjJRIKgho
— Megan Romer (@meganromer) July 4, 2017
To his credit, Higgins does seem to have a thorough understanding of how the gas chambers operated. Unlike another Republican we know.
Next, learn about how House Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. Then, discover why the Republican Party’s founders wouldn’t recognize the GOP today.
