‘Nazi’ references: BBC sportscaster’s tweet revives debate

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The references seem endless, and they can come from anywhere. In recent days, Pope Francis compared Nicaragua’s repression of Catholics to Hitler’s rule in Germany. In Britain, a BBC sportscaster was briefly suspended for likening the nation’s asylum policy to 1930s Germany. For Holocaust and anti-Nazi scholars and organizations, the sentiments were understandable but concerning. They warn that invoking Hitler and Nazi Germany often serves to revive a familiar and unwelcome line of argument.  One scholar says the sportscaster, Gary Lineker, might have been better off describing the policy as “racist” or “inhumane.”