Clarence Thomas’ Wife Shares Post Blaming Holocaust On Gun Control
Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, moderates a panel discussion titled ‘When did World War III Begin? Part A: Threats at Home’ during the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference. Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas shared a Facebook post blaming the Holocaust in part on gun control and attacking survivors of the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
The post was one of several identified by The Hill on Monday as posted by Virginia Thomas and registering strong disagreement with gun control while criticizing the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting in February that killed 17 students and faculty members.
“To all the kids that walked out of school to protest guns,” said the post, which had previously been posted by an acquaintance of Virginia Thomas who had died recently and featuring a pile of shoes of Holocaust victims. “These are the shoes of Jews that gave up their firearms to Hitler. They were led into gas chambers, murdered and buried in mass graves. Pick up a history book and you’ll realize what happens when u give up freedoms and why we have them.”
Thomas, herself a prominent conservative activist, added, “This post from his page is amazing.”
The notion that Jews may have prevented the Holocaust had they been armed, popular in some pro-gun circles, has been debunked by historians, who have noted how outnumbered Jews were in countries in which they were slaughtered.
Other posts shared by Thomas accused Parkland survivors of being “stupid,” of being manipulated by adults, and of manipulating the deaths of their fellow students and teachers to advance their agenda.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
