WASHINGTON (JTA) — Comments blaming the Holocaust on gun control have landed Ohio congressional candidate Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher in hot water.
The National Jewish Democratic Council criticized Wurzelbacher, the Republican nominee in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, for claiming in a video released by his campaign that the implementation of gun control prevented Europe’s Jews from fighting back against the Nazis.
“In 1939, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, six million Jews and seven million others unable to defend themselves were exterminated,” Wurzelbacher said in the video.
In response, NJDC President and CEO David Harris said in a news statement, “Using the memories of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust to make a political point is never appropriate, under any circumstances. For Ohio Republican House candidate Samuel Wurzelbacher to imply that these innocent lives were taken because of gun control laws is simply beyond the pale.”
Wurzelbacher is running against incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur for the seat.
He was thrust into politics during the 2008 presidential campaign after expressing concerns to then-candidate Barack Obama about the working class. John McCain, the Republican presidential that year, nicknamed Wurzelbacher "Joe the Plumber."
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