By Matt Underwood The far-right’s current dehumanization of transgender people bears striking resemblances to the Nazi regime’s persecution of Jewish people, with both employing similar tactics of targeting marginalized groups as “internal enemies” and leveraging propaganda and legislation to sow societal division. It’s crucial to understand these parallels not to diminish the horrors of the past, but to recognize dangerous patterns that can re-emerge.
Historically, the Nazis didn’t immediately resort to mass extermination. Their campaign against Jewish people began with discrimination, exclusion, and the erosion of rights. They were systematically removed from German society, their businesses boycotted and seized, and discriminatory laws, such as the Nuremberg Race Laws, were enacted. This created an environment of escalating hostility, aiming to make life unbearable and force emigration, with the ultimate goal of a “cleansed” Germany.
Similarly, the far-right narrative often frames transgender people as a threat to societal norms and even children. This “internal enemy” rhetoric is a classic authoritarian tactic, designed to create fear and justify the implementation of restrictive laws. We’re seeing this play out with the constant introduction of anti-trans bills across various regions. These legislative efforts aim to deny transgender individuals access to healthcare, exclude them from civil rights protections, prevent their participation in sports, and restrict their use of public facilities based on their birth-assigned sex.
The propaganda employed by both the Nazis and the contemporary far-right serves a similar purpose: to dehumanize and isolate the targeted group. The Nazis, for instance, viewed Jewish people as inherently corrupt and a threat to the nation’s purity, a sentiment that fueled their discriminatory policies. Today, transgender people are often portrayed in a similarly negative light, their identities questioned and their very existence framed as problematic.
It’s important to remember that the Nazis didn’t solely target Jewish people. Their persecution extended to Roma (Gypsies), Black individuals, homosexuals, intellectuals, and many others deemed undesirable. This pattern of targeting multiple marginalized groups is also evident in contemporary far-right movements, which often cast a wide net, including immigrants, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, transgender people, communists, socialists, and progressives as scapegoats for societal problems.
The Nazis’ attack on the Institute of Sexual Science in Berlin, a pioneering center for transgender research and support, is a stark historical example of their intent to erase and persecute transgender individuals. They burned research and imprisoned transgender people in concentration camps. This historical precedent underscores the fact that transgender people were explicitly targeted by the Nazi regime, not as an afterthought, but as part of their broader agenda of societal “cleansing.”
The numbers involved often highlight the vulnerability of these groups. While transgender people constitute a small percentage of the population, around 0.5% to 1%, this is comparable to the Jewish population’s pre-World War II presence in Germany, which was also around 0.5%. This disproportionate targeting of a minority group, regardless of its size, is a hallmark of oppressive regimes.
The strategy of scapegoating a minority group is often used to distract from policy failures or broader societal issues. By focusing public attention on an “external” or “internal” enemy, political leaders can rally their base and deflect criticism. This manipulation of public opinion through fear and prejudice is a tactic as old as authoritarianism itself.
The concept of “animalistic dehumanization,” as described by researchers, where a group is portrayed as lacking uniquely human traits like rationality or morality, making them seem like vermin or disease carriers, is a chillingly familiar echo. This type of rhetoric strips individuals of their dignity and moral standing, making them easier targets for persecution and violence.
The parallels extend to the legislative arena. Just as the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their rights and citizenship, current legislation targeting transgender people aims to systematically exclude them from education, legal recognition, and social institutions, effectively denying them the right to exist as full members of civil society. This exclusion from participation in society is a crucial step in the process of dehumanization.
When people dismiss these comparisons as exaggeration or “whiny,” they often overlook the historical progression of persecution. The Nazis systematically dismantled Jewish rights long before the mass killings, and the far-right’s current efforts against transgender people mirror this gradual erosion of rights and societal acceptance.
It is vital to acknowledge that history doesn’t always repeat itself exactly, but it often rhymes. By understanding these patterns of dehumanization, propaganda, and legislative oppression, we can better identify and resist them when they appear in our own time. The targeting of transgender individuals as “internal enemies” by the far-right, employing tactics eerily similar to those used against Jewish people by the Nazis, is a warning sign that demands our urgent attention and unwavering opposition.