Holocaust experts are condemning Republican Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano after reviewing a low-budget right-wing film he acted in that likens the mass genocide of Jewish people in the 1940’s to abortion.
The Washington Post asked a panel of four Holocaust experts to watch the film and offer their perspectives on its message and treatment of the genocide.
Mr Mastriano acted in the 2019 film, Operation Resist, as did his son, who played a Nazi.
The paper reports that the film ends with a Jewish Holocaust survivor urging a modern-day school board to include information on the Holocaust in textbooks while also condemning gun control, big government, and abortion.
One book that details the Holocaust, the award-winning graphic novel Maus, was banned by a Tennessee School District after a largely right-wing led campaign to have it removed.
During the film, the Jewish Holocaust survivor says "it’s time to say never again," while discussing abortion, likening the termination of a pregnancy to Adolf Hitler systematically attempting to wipe out an entire ethnic and religious group.
“It is offensive to weaponize the Holocaust for political ends, yet that is what this film does and quite proudly,” Neil Leifert, director of the Center for Holocaust and Jewish Studies at Penn State, told The Washington Post.
The film’s lead actress, who is Jewish, told the paper that she found the movie’s promotion of Christianity at the expense of Jewish characters "disturbing."
Mr Mastriano has been criticised in the past for his connection to the social media platform Gab, which hosted the anti-Semitic screeds of the man who shot and killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh four years ago. He paid the site $5,000 in consulting fees, and the site’s CEO Andrew Torba contributed $500 to Mr Mastriano’s campaign.
The gubernatorial candidate has also been accused of employing anti-Semitic tropes in attack ads against his opponent, Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish.
Mr Mastriano addressed the claims in July by saying that he rejects "anti-Semitisim in any form." His wife, Rebbie Mastriano, who was also in the film, claimed she and her husband "probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do."
Some right-wing Evangelical Christian theological ideas include the belief that Israel must exist before Jesus returns and judges the world, including Jewish people.
The film’s director and primary funder, James Moran, said he does not endorse extremist views and praised Mr Mastriano’s character.
"All I saw from him during the movie was positivity toward the Jewish people," he told the paper. "If people are going to tear apart my movie to get at Doug, then they have no credibility."
Despite this, Oren Segal, the vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Centre on Extremism, told The Washington Post that he felt the film "[exploits] the Holocaust for political purposes."
The Independent has reached out to Mr Mastriano for comment.
