Right-wing commentator and U.S. House nominee Lily Tang Williams repeatedly shared a false meme criticizing Jewish people for supposedly giving “up their firearms to Hitler” and suggesting that led to their deaths in the Holocaust. The New Hampshire Republican even doubled down on the meme when apparently shown a fact check. 

Williams is a public speaker and commentator who has appeared in conservative media outlets, including Fox News, Newsmax TV, and Tim Pool’s podcast. She won the September 10 Republican primary in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican’s House campaign arm, has backed her campaign. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a top-ranked House Republican, has also endorsed Williams. 

As Media Matters previously reported, conservatives have repeatedly promoted a meme on social media claiming that Jewish people “gave up their firearms to Hitler.” The meme reads: “To all the kids that walked out of school to protest guns. 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.”

Williams reposted that meme on social media in June 2022 and April 2023. She wrote: “Remember what happened to Jews after they gave up their guns to Hitler. Our #2A exists to prevent tyranny. If you want to reduce mass shootings in schools, repeal gun free zones where the criminals always target our most vulnerable people.” 

She also directed the meme toward Parkland, Florida, mass shooting survivor David Hogg, writing: “To the ppl who were in the ⁦@AMarch4OurLives⁩, who are demanding for more #guncontrol, research & study history on your own. Don’t rely on schools & media to tell you the truth: what happens when citizens are disarmed by their gov. #lily4congress ⁦@davidhogg111.” 

The line of attack regarding the Holocaust and gun control has also been employed by right-wing media figures over the years. 

The argument is a severe misreading of history. As PolitiFact wrote in 2019, “The message that gun control measures helped cause the deaths of Holocaust victims is wrong. Let's make something clear: The Nazis did deny guns specifically to Jews. But, given the size of their forces and their methods of confiscation and extermination, this is a trivial factor. The notion that it would have made any difference is unreasonable.” 

Williams shared and disputed that PolitiFact article, writing: “They need to listen to the survivors of the Holocaust.” 

Republican politicians have also drawn criticism for making the argument. In 2015, for instance, right-wing commentator and then-Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson made a similar analogy about the Holocaust and gun control. 

In response, Holocaust scholar Alan E. Steinweis wrote: “I can think of no serious work of scholarship on the Nazi dictatorship or on the causes of the Holocaust in which Nazi gun control measures feature as a significant factor.” He added: “If the United States is going to arrive at a workable compromise solution to its gun problem, it will not be accomplished through the use of historical analogies that are false, silly and insulting.” 

Media Matters has documented instances over the years of Republicans backing commentators with histories of vitriolic or extremist rhetoric when they run for office.