“Words name things and then replace them.” I heard the Late Elie Wiesel use that phrase years ago when I was attending a small reception with him in New Jersey. The famous Holocaust survivor (Auschwitz) was describing the risk when a word that carries the heavy freight of history becomes a label people use and then morphs into common language. He warned that the history behind that word becomes replaced with the word itself while the actual history lessons and facts are lost.
The rest of this essay is my opinion only. At the bottom are some references to facts and evidence. Readers may then decide for themselves.
In America today we have recently seen some young political activists use the word Nazi.
Case study #1.
A proposed appointment to a high federal office withdrew after the majority leader in the US Senate advised the White House that he would not be confirmed. “I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” read part of the Truth Social post by Paul Ingrassia, who had been selected by President Donald Trump to lead the Office of Special Counsel. Here’s the link to the Politico piece describing the revealed text statements, including Ingrassia’s admission of a personal “Nazi streak.”
“Ingrassia withdraws nomination after racist texts” | Politico, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/21/trump-pulls-ingrassia-nomination-racist-texts-00617041.
Paul Ingrassia is a 30-year-old lawyer (Cornell Law School after a Fordham University economics and math undergraduate degree), according to his Wikipedia page.
“Paul Ingrassia (lawyer)” | Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ingrassia_(lawyer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ingrassia_(lawyer)#Early_life_and_education.
He has blown up his career path with the use of the word Nazi.
Case study #2.
The Vice-President of the United States made excuses for the references to Nazis made by young Republicans when their messages in chats become public. He is reported to have said the chat was “kids” doing “stupid things.” Here’s the Politico story that turned a national Young Republican chat group using encrypted messaging into a scandal:
“‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat” | Politico, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146
The story was reported worldwide. Here’s Al Jazeera:
“‘Gas them’: How a leaked pro-Nazi young Republicans chat sparked GOP storm” | Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/17/gas-them-how-a-leaked-pro-nazi-young-republicans-chat-sparked-gop-storm
Note that the Young Republicans involved are typically between the ages of 18 and 40. Here’s the Young Republicans organizational website: https://www.yrnf.com. An excerpt reads:
The Young Republicans (YRs) are the oldest political youth organization in the United States. Important to the growth of the Republican Party, the YRs reach out to registered Republicans, 18–40 years of age, and provide them with better political knowledge and understanding of the issues of the day. The first Young Republican Club was established in 1856 in support of the newly formed Republican Party and the abolitionist movement.
In my early Republican years, I remember the Ripon Society, named for the birthplace of the Republican Party (https://www.riponsociety.org). Click on the link, and you will see the building and Teddy Roosevelt and a lot more of what that organization is about. The notion of secret Nazi messaging was unthinkable and totally foreign to what I remember.
So, what has changed to lead to this evolution among younger Republicans? Why is the fixation on Nazism and fascism so intense, and how does it demonstrate the ignorance of the users of the terms? Do they not know the history? It is worse yet if they do know the history and persist anyway.
Among friends and colleagues in Sarasota, we have Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who resist the haters. We meet and socialize and share ideas. We lament this poisonous atmosphere. We try to counter it within our circles of community activities. On Long Boat Key, leaders of Democrat and Republican groups have met together specifically for this purpose.
We don’t want words to name things, become labels, and then replace the painful history they are associated with. We do want history to be taught accurately —because we don’t want its darkest chapters to be repeated. We do want young people to aspire to public service and do so with political civility.
There’s a difference between Nazism and fascism. Fascism came first, with Benito Mussolini. Here’s a quick etymology from Dictionary.com.
The first records of the word fascism in English come from around the 1920s. It comes from the Italian fascismo, from fascio, meaning “political group.” Mussolini formed these small political groups into a political party, Partito Nazionale Fascista—the National Fascist Party.
Fascism and the Italian fascio ultimately derive from the Latin fascis, meaning “bundle” (the plural form is fasces). In ancient Rome, fasces consisted of a bundle of rods with an axe blade sticking out. This was used as a symbol of a government official’s power. The Italian fascists brought back the fasces as a symbol of their brand of nationalism, which became known as fascism. The suffix -ism indicates a doctrine or set of principles.
(Nazi vs. Fascist: Is There Really A Difference? | Dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/e/nazi-fascist/)
Adolf Hitler followed Mussolini. One can learn some details about Mussolini and his use of Italian media from this resource made publicly available by the University of South Florida. It is the biweekly newspaper La Difesa Della Razza (In Defense of Race), published 1938–1943:
La Difesa Della Razza | Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of South Florida, https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/razza/index.3.html
I was in Bologna when this exhibit was released to the public. I saw it there. Here’s the link: http://informa.comune.bologna.it/storiaamministrativa/media/files/razza_2005.pdf .
It is time to close this missive, and I will do so with a final piece of evidence.
At a recent private dinner, I was discussing this issue with my friend Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota. During his time in the US Senate and prior to the Senate, he abhorred the hater approach to politics. During dinner, we talked about facts and history and about how our young folks don’t know them.
Kent described his Uncle John Conrad as an education champion all his life. John Conrad served on the North Dakota Board of Higher Education as an appointee of Gov. Bill Guy. He also served in the US Third Army during WW2 in field artillery under Gen. George Patton. Pfc. John Conrad wrote a letter home during the war. That family item became a public story in the Bismarck, North Dakota, newspaper. Here is a brief excerpt.
With Kent’s permission, Conrad’s letter is linked below as a scanned PDF.
https://kotokreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/KR_Words-Name-Things-Conrad-Article.pdf
Elie Weisel’s warning applies. Words are naming things and then replacing them. When young people invoke words such as Nazi, fascist, Holocaust, or genocide from ignorance, we have an education problem. When young people invoke them purposefully, we have an even a bigger problem.
Recommended Reading
“Violence, racism, and Nazi praise: The dark side of US political group chats” | Reuters,
“Auschwitz concentration camp” | Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
“Auschwitz-Birkenau: Visiting” | Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, https://www.auschwitz.org/en/visiting/
