Rep. Don Young: 'How many Jews were put in ovens because they were unarmed?'
Rep. Don Young, the Alaska congressman known for making controversial statements, seemed to suggest that Jewish people died in the Holocaust because they were unarmed.
While speaking at a conference in his home state, the Republican lawmaker said, “How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Fifty million in Russia because their citizens were unarmed.”
He continued: “How many Jews were put in the ovens because they were unarmed?”
According to Alaska Public Radio, Young’s quote came after Dimitri Shein, a Democrat who is running for Young’s congressional seat, asked about school safety. Shein did not immediately return a request for comment.
Young spokeswoman Murphy McCollough said Young’s comment had been taken out of context.
“He was referencing the fact that when Hitler confiscated firearms from Jewish Germans, those communities were less able to defend themselves,” McCollough said in an email. “He was not implying that an armed Jewish population would have been able to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust, but his intended message is that disarming citizens can have detrimental consequences.”
Young — who has been Congress since 1973 and is the longest-serving member of Congress currently in office — has a reputation for making controversial comments. Last year, he had to apologize for referring to a fellow lawmaker in her 50s as “young lady” who didn’t know what she was talking about. In 2014, he apologized for saying suicide showed a lack of support from friends and family. And back in 2013, he apologized after referring to Hispanic migrant workers as “wetbacks.”
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