As Trump takes US top office, Pope remembers ‘classic case’ of Hitler in Germany | World News - Hindustan Times
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As Trump takes US top office, Pope remembers ‘classic case’ of Hitler in Germany

ByAFP, Madrid
Jan 26, 2017 08:44 AM IST

In an hour-long interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais conducted as Donald Trump was being sworn in as US president, the pontiff also condemned the idea of using walls and barbed wire to keep out foreigners.

Pope Francis on Saturday warned against populism, saying it could lead to the election of “saviours” like Hitler.

Donald Trump takes the oath of US President office as his wife Melania Trump holds the Bible and his son Barron Trump looks on, on the West Front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Friday .(AFP)
Donald Trump takes the oath of US President office as his wife Melania Trump holds the Bible and his son Barron Trump looks on, on the West Front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Friday .(AFP)

In an hour-long interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais conducted as Donald Trump was being sworn in as US president, the pontiff also condemned the idea of using walls and barbed wire to keep out foreigners.

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“Of course crises provoke fears and worries,” he said but added that for him “the example of populism in the European sense of the word is Germany in 1933.

Read | Trump rates higher than Hitler on psychopath scale, says Oxford study

“Germany... was looking for a leader, someone who would give her back her identity and there was a little man named Adolf Hitler who said ‘I can do it’.”

“Hitler did not steal power,” the pope said. “He was elected by his people and then he destroyed his people.”

The Germans at that time also wanted to protect themselves with “walls and barbed wire so that others cannot take away their identity,” he said.

Read | ‘That’s how Mussolini, Hitler arrived’: What Trump’s critics said before he won

“The case of Germany is classic,” he said, adding that Hitler gave them a “deformed identity and we know what it produced.”

Pope Francis however underscored that it was too early to pass judgement on Trump.

“Let’s see. Let’s see what he does and then we will evaluate,” he said.

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