Auschwitz Museum criticises Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath for 'mark of the beast' Nazi comparison

Speaking to media on Tuesday about the Covid certs, Mr McGrath said: 'Is that where we've come to now, back to 1933 in Germany, we'll be all tagged in yellow with the mark of the beast on us, is that where we're going?' File picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

The Auschwitz Museum has criticised Mattie McGrath for comparing Covid certificates to Nazi Germany.

The independent Tipperary TD was speaking out against the Government's plans to introduce domestic Covid-19 certificates to reopen indoor dining.

Speaking to media on Tuesday, Mr McGrath said: "Is that where we've come to now, back to 1933 in Germany, we'll be all tagged in yellow with the mark of the beast on us, is that where we're going?

"I'm surprised at ye."

When challenged by an Irish Examiner journalist on whether such a comparison to the Holocaust was appropriate, McGrath said: "If you study history and I'm not a historian, you can see what happened in Germany.

"There is huge correlations, it's exactly the same if you want to study it, exactly the same, restriction of movements, couldn't go where they wanted to go, treated like.

I'm comparing what went on in early Germany and the people had such fear and that's what happened, so I am comparing, yeah, that's for me to compare and for anyone else who wants to read history, make their own decisions on it."

Mr McGrath has previously compared taxi men not being able to protest during the pandemic to "Nazi Hitler times," while speaking in the Dáil.

Mr McGrath's comparisons were widely criticised by Government and opposition TDs when the comments appeared online, before the official Auschwitz Museum took to social media to criticise Mr McGrath's comments.

@mattiemcgrathtd ‘Holocaust–the destruction of European Jews’
A seven-chapter online course about the history od the #Holocaust.
All parts below.https://t.co/Law3fQRRMS

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 13, 2021

"Instrumentalization of the tragedy of all people who between 1933-45 suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the hateful totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline," the account said.

The account then directed Mr McGrath to: 'Holocaust – the destruction of European Jews’ a seven-lesson free online course about the history of the Holocaust.

The Taoiseach challenged Mr McGrath in the Dáil about his comments saying: "I think you should refrain from your frequent use of language and I've asked you to stop using terms Nazis and totalitarianism, you've made ridiculous assertions in this house and that are offensive to people.

You have repeatedly accused the government of being like Nazis, in this house.

Mr McGrath asked to be spared "the history lesson".

Minister of State Thomas Byrne also condemned the comparison saying: "Nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to Nazi Germany.

"Every comparison made diminishes the memory of that unique evil, and the slaughter of millions of Jews."

In a statement issued late on Tuesday night, Mr McGrath rejected claims that he specifically compared the proposed vaccine pass legislation for indoor dining to the Jewish holocaust.

“I will not be lectured to by this Taoiseach, any member of his government or indeed any member of this Dáil when they continue to insist that I am engaged in false equivalences on this matter. I have never used the word ‘holocaust’ despite the misleading assertions of the Taoiseach and others,” Mr McGrath said.

He added that he has not argued against vaccination.

“What I have argued against is enforced or coercive vaccination as indeed the EU Parliament has and that is an entirely different matter.

"Yes I have described the governments railroading of draconian, discriminatory and profoundly unethical legislation on this issue as reminiscent of the early Nazi era, however I was using the term as a way to describe a certain kind of political environment where fundamental constitutional and legal principles are eroded and where a system of enforced segregation is imposed on people under a veneer of democratic legitimacy.

“In this sense it should be clear to all that what is happening this week is a travesty of the democratic process. The entire political opposition and anyone with their eyes open at all can see that this is the case.”

Mr McGrath said that his “fundamental point” was that there “are clear and egregious civil liberty violations embedded into the vaccine pass system that is being proposed and I will not shirk from calling that out just because my remarks are being amplified and distorted in a deeply cynical fashion”.