It went over great in Germany eightyish years ago, just like it's going great for Donald Trump, Jr., today [https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/778016283342307328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw].
'Trump’s tweet has clear parallels to [Julius] Streicher’s children’s book, where a boy named Franz learns about the Jews from his mother:
“However they disguise themselves, or however friendly they try to be, affirming a thousand times their good intentions to us, one must not believe them. Jews they are and Jews they remain. For our Volk they are poison.”
“Like the poisonous mushroom!” says Franz.
“Yes, my child! Just as a single poisonous mushroom can kill a whole family, so a solitary Jew can destroy a whole village, a whole city, even an entire Volk [nation].”
Streicher didn't get executed at Nuremberg for this story in particular, but it was part of his constantly produced fabric of vitriolic anti-Semitism that did lead to crimes against humanity — and his eventual death.
Language like this, stories like this, have impact. Teaching folks that groups of people are poisonous, or even that just some of them are poisonous so you can't trust any of them — has impact. It's not good impact. But it is following an old tradition.
Nazi Who Originated Donald Trump Jr.’s Skittles Analogy Was Hanged at Nuremberg
The book’s author, Julius Streicher, was hanged at Nuremburg in 1946 for crimes against humanity.
