This comparison with the certificate put in place by Nazi Germany is wrong

A new dubious comparison between the health pass and Nazi Germany. For several weeks, a publication has been particularly viral among opponents of the sesame introduced by the government to fight against Covid-19. “In 1933, Hilter created the” ahnenpass “, a genealogical passport which certified that the possessor was Aryan”, and which regulated access “to museums, public buildings, theaters, studies, work”, assures the post reproduced identically on numerous occasions.

It is often accompanied by a photo montage showing the entrance to a concentration camp. The infamous inscription “Arbeit macht frei” (“work makes free”) has been replaced by the words “the sanitary pass makes free”.

The authors of these posts add that “a people who forgets their past condemn themselves to relive it”. In the comments, some say: “This is where the grotesque and costly pass comes from, we are in a dictatorship. But for the majority, this comparison is “inappropriate”, “shameful” or even “filthy”.

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One major difference distinguishes the Nazi Ahnenpass from the health pass. The first, which sought to document the Aryan (especially non-Jewish) origin of its holder, participated in racial segregation. The second aims to preserve public health.

And, as historian Chantal Kesteloot pointed out to our Belgian colleagues at DPA Factchecking, the viral publication’s claims are false. As the work of researchers has proved, the certificate instituted by Hitler “was used for recruitment into the civil service, the NSDAP [parti nazi] and the SS but was in no way imposed to access museums, theaters and other public buildings ”.

Since the extension of the health pass in the summer of 2021, many personalities have denounced the parallels made between the establishment of this QR code and the Nazi dictatorship. Asked by 20 Minutes last August, Jacques Fredj, director of the Shoah Memorial in Paris, denounced in particular the yellow star worn by some demonstrators against the device. “The yellow star, as such, did not simply come to mark the Jews of France, but it is the fruit of a long process of exclusion and a long genocidal process. It has nothing to do with the situation denounced by opponents of the health pass or vaccination. “