Nazis Equal White Trash

 Haaretz quotes filmmaker Petra Epperlein 

“I’m American, and when I was growing up, in the 70’s, Neo-Nazis were kind of like comic book characters. It was like some stupid white trash people go out and they wear a swastika and everyone knows they’re stupid and ridiculous but we’ll give them free speech because that’s what we do in America,” Tucker says. “But what we witnessed in Germany, 5-6 years ago, you really actually felt scared. These are not just 10 people or 20 or 100 people. These are, literally, tens of thousands of people who suddenly feel like they can express this hatred. And that sort of sparked it. And of course when we were finally deciding to do the film Charlottesville happened. And there was no stopping it after that.”

Epperlein repeats the elitist stereotype that one must be "stupid" "white trash" -- that is, poor -- to be a Nazi. This fits in exactly with the Bieganski, Brute Polak stereotype. To do bad things, one must be stupid and poor. 

In fact, of course, Germany was one of the wealthiest countries in Europe and many top Nazis were highly educated and from aristocratic backgrounds.  

The filmmaker also conflates anyone opposed to mass, unvetted, migration of young, Muslim males to Germany with Nazism, and then expresses confusion as to why anyone would oppose such immigration. 

The filmmakers (she works with a partner) also conflate Donald Trump to Hitler, which is hyperbolic and unhelpful. But, if you begin with the premise that poor white people are just Nazis waiting to happen, then conflating Trump with Hitler is just one step away. 

“Right before we started, Charlottesville happened. Who would have predicted Trump? How do you explain what just happened in America? It was just as insane as what happened in Germany in the early 1930’s. As we were finishing this film all these things were happening,” Tucker says.

The article concludes: 

The directors admit that they were initially ambivalent about including Irving in the film. When they discovered that he spends his summers giving tours of concentration camps in Poland – which he refers to as “trips through the real history” – all under the auspices of the Polish government, they decided to include him.

Tucker explains that Irving himself doesn’t necessarily interest them. “It had less to do with Irving and more to do with how is it possible in this world that the Poles allow him to go do that.” Tucker says, “We went to Poland, met him at the parking lot in Treblinka, where he had probably two dozen people with him, there was no one there to stop him, no one watching. We’ve filmed a lot of things. We’ve filmed wars, we’ve filmed all sorts of things. And I think that was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever experienced. Who’s to stop them? Baltic states have banned him, because he was also going up there. If it’s a byproduct that maybe someone will take notice [and put an end to it], it would be a good thing.” 

Full article here