Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas an article on December 15, 2011, on the Politico Pro newspaper website quoted the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, as saying, If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine. I think that you have, and let’s be honest, you know, some of the people in the media are complicit in this, in enabling them to get that type of message out.;

Whereas Joseph Goebbels served as the Third Reich’s Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933–1945;

Whereas Joseph Goebbels openly used xenophobia and racism in his quest to dehumanize European Jewry;

Whereas Joseph Goebbels made Jews the scapegoat of German economic insecurity, fostering flagrant anti-Semitism;

Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reports that Joseph Goebbels delivered a passionate anti-Semitic speech to the Nazi party faithful in Munich on November 9, 1938 … After the speech, Nazi officials order the Storm Troopers (SA) and other party formations to attack Jews and to destroy their homes, businesses, and houses of worship. The violence against Jews lasts into the morning hours of November 10th, and becomes known as Kristallnacht—the ‘Night of Broken Glass’. Several dozen Jews lose their lives and tens of thousands are arrested and sent to concentration camps.;

Whereas Nazi Germany and their collaborators killed six million European Jews and millions of others as part of their Final Solution;

Whereas by invoking the specter of Joseph Goebbels, the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, thoroughly belittles the horrors and suffering experienced by the victims and survivors of the Holocaust;

Whereas the American Jewish Committee issued a December 15, 2011, statement saying To make a linkage between any mainstream political party in the United States and the heinous atrocities committed by the Third Reich should be simply beyond the pale, whatever political differences may arise in a heated electoral season … By invoking the image of Joseph Goebbels and the Gestapo, Representative West has displayed a complete lack of understanding of the worst genocidal era in human history. Moreover, he has diminished and trivialized the unique evil perpetrated by the Third Reich through his unfortunate use of language;

Whereas the Anti-Defamation League said in a December 16, 2011, letter to the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, We were deeply dismayed by Rep. West’s remark comparing the Democratic Party’s attempts to articulate views to the American people through the media to the efforts of the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels … Such outrageous Holocaust analogies have no place in our political dialogue. They are offensive, they trivialize real historical events, and they diminish the memory of the six million Jews and millions of others who perished in the Holocaust;

Whereas the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, wrote in a letter to the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, that the Representative from Florida should help raise the level of congressional discourse in a vigorous debate;

Whereas the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, responded back in a letter to the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, that The Democrat Party does indeed have a vicious propaganda machine, it espouses lies and deceit and the Master of deceptive information would be truly proud;

Whereas in the repetition of this abhorrent and outrageous sentiment to the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, demonstrates not only the willful and malicious misapplication of history, but also his disdain for the decorum of the Congress; and

Whereas the conduct of the Representative from Florida was repugnant: Now, therefore, be it