No, Democrats are not using a Nazi slogan in campaign | Fact check
The claim: Democrats are using the Nazi slogan 'Strength Through Joy'
An Aug. 16 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) from actor Robert Davi includes a link to the Wikipedia entry for “Strength Through Joy” and a video.
“’Strength Through Joy’ was a Nazi slogan from 1933 all the way through the whole World War II,” Davi says in the video. “Think about that, read about it. I’m giving you the Wiki post, it says some information about it. Strength Through Joy. The Democratic Party’s slogan.”
The video was liked more than 17,000 times in two weeks.
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Our rating: False
While joy has been a theme in Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and at the Democratic National Convention, “Strength Through Joy” has not become a slogan for her or the Democratic Party.
No evidence of Democrats using Nazi slogan
On the campaign trail and in Democratic National Convention speeches, Harris, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and other Democrats have emphasized joy as a theme in the campaign.
However, there are no credible reports of the party or its candidates borrowing a phrase associated with the Nazis – “Strength Through Joy” – as a slogan. Paste BN could find no examples of it in searches of Harris’s social media accounts or credible media coverage. It also does not appear in the Democratic Party’s platform.
“Strength Through Joy” was not the primary slogan for the Nazis, who emblazoned propaganda with “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer” – translating to “One People, One Country, One Leader.” But it was the name of a recreation program established by the Nazis that was intended to cultivate loyalty and improve German workers’ morale and productivity. The program’s offerings ranged from cheap vacations and cultural outings to organized fitness activities, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It also spawned development of a car that was a forerunner to the Volkswagen Beetle.
Fact check: Harris and Walz posing with a communist sign? No, image is altered.
Paste BN reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters, PolitiFact, Snopes and Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Democratic Party, accessed Aug. 29, Party Platform
- U.S. Holocaust Museum, accessed Aug. 29, Selling Nazism in a Democracy
- U.S. Holocaust Museum, accessed Aug. 29, Color poster with a portrait of Hitler and the Nazi slogan: Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer!
- U.S. Holocaust Museum, accessed Aug. 29, Photograph of "Strength through Joy” Event at Strandbad Wannsee
- U.S. Holocaust Museum, accessed Aug. 29, Photograph of a "Strength through Joy" Car
- National Library of Scotland, accessed Aug. 29, Strength Through Joy leaflet - Propaganda - A Weapon of War
- Paste BN, updated Aug. 22, Democratic convention replay: Kamala Harris accepts Democratic presidential nomination
- Paste BN, updated Aug. 22, 'We won't go back': Rev. Al Sharpton invokes joy to introduce Exonerated 5 in DNC speech
- Paste BN, updated Aug. 21, Douglas Emhoff calls wife Kamala Harris a 'joyful warrior' in heartfelt DNC speech: Watch
- Paste BN, Aug. 11, Kamala Harris emphasizes joy and policy differences at Las Vegas rally
- Paste BN, updated Aug. 10, Walzing on sunshine: How Tim Walz's upbeat demeanor got him on the Kamala Harris ticket
- CNN, updated Aug. 25, Kamala Harris is tapping into the Black Joy Movement
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