On Tuesday, in denouncing Assad’s regime in Syria, White House Secretary Sean Spicer compared Assad to Adolph Hitler, saying that not even Hitler used chemical weapons on his own people.
In his comments, Spicer said that Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” during World War II, and while it’s true that Hitler did not sign off on using chemical weapons on the battlefield, he did, in fact, use gas on Jews and others in concentration camps.
When asked for clarification, Spicer said, “I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.”
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Reporters then offered the Holocaust as an example of Hitler using gas on civilians, but Spicer stood by his comments.
“But in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns and dropped them down to innocent in the middle of towns,” he insisted. “I appreciate the clarification, that was not the intent.”
Most historians agree that Hitler did not use chemical weapons on the battlefield against the Allies, despite the fact that he had both WWI-era weapons and more advanced nerve agents. However, he certainly authorized the use of gas against innocent people in concentration camps.