Dr. Laura’s Nazi Analogy Criticized By Holocaust Scholars

News Release
January 02, 2004

A leading Holocaust Studies institute is urging radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger to retract her comparison of U.S. day care centers to child-rearing practices in Nazi Germany.

On her January 2, 2004 show, Dr. Schlessinger read a letter from a listener who criticized the lack of one-on-one attention given to children in some day care centers, especially those calling themselves “Child Development Centers.” Dr. Schlessinger commented that “it sounds like something out of Nazi Germany.”

The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, a research and education institute focusing on America’s response to the Holocaust, is urging Dr. Schlessinger to retract her remark.

Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff said: “Whatever their flaws, Child Development Centers are not comparable to Nazi Germany, a brutal fascist dictatorship that slaughtered six million Jews. Such analogies trivialize the Holocaust and undermine efforts to educate the public about the real nature of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Dr. Laura often urges her listeners to ‘Go do the right thing’; we urge her to go do the right thing–retract your comparison of day care centers to Nazi Germany.”