Candace Owens has come under fire for her ‘despicable’ denial of the atrocities of the Holocaust, including the human experiments that Nazi physician Josef Mengele conducted on prisoners at Auschwitz.
The controversial conservative commentator, 35, was slammed for her ‘increasing embrace of antisemitic tropes’ after claiming on her show last week that Mengele’s horrific twin experiments were ‘bizarre propaganda’.
Mengele – nicknamed the Angel of Death because he selected who would be murdered in gas chambers – carried out a series of cruel tests on twins throughout the war, which included sewing them together to create conjoined twins.
Out of the 1,500 twins subjected to his horrific and often deadly experiments, only around 200 survived.
The commentator now faces criticisms for her ‘historically inaccurate’ remarks, with the Anti-Defamation League – which was founded to combat antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination – warning that her vile commentary is ‘dangerous’.
Candace Owens was slammed for her ‘increasing embrace of antisemitic tropes’ after claiming on her Candace show last week that Nazi physician Josef Mengele’s horrific twin experiments were ‘bizarre propaganda’. She is pictured during the program
Mengele, nicknamed the Angel of Death because he selected who would be murdered in gas chambers, carried out a series of cruel tests on twins throughout the war, which included sewing them together to create conjoined twins. Pictured from left to right: SS officers Richard Baer, Dr. Josef Mengele and Rudolf Hoess
‘It’s hard to go lower than Candace Owens’s claims that Mengele’s twin experiments in the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust are propaganda,’ a spokesperson for the New York-based organization told DailyMail.com.
‘Mengele’s experiments were heavily documented – including by him – and photographed. Further, some of his victims survived and testified about these atrocities.
‘Owens’s Holocaust denial shows her increasing embrace of antisemitic tropes.
‘Questioning the evil nature of Hitler and his regime and claiming that America and the Allies were the ones who committed ethnic cleansing against Germany is not just historically inaccurate, it’s despicable and it’s dangerous.’
Irina Tsukerman, a human rights and national security lawyer and geopolitical analyst, also warned that Owens is ‘normalizing and mainstreaming antisemitism and pro-Nazi agenda’.
‘Owens’ comments are dangerous because they feed into Holocaust denial, minimize Nazi crimes against humanity, dehumanize and defame Jews, and support the spread of hateful conspiracy theories,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘However, they are also likely the product of state propaganda.’
Tsukerman argued that the ‘structure’ of Owens’ rhetoric ‘closely echoes the substance of questions and conspiracy theories produced by leading Russian propaganda outlets’.
Acknowledging that although Owens has ‘lost a lot of support’ due to her hateful commentary, the attorney warned that through her ‘major following’, she is still ‘radicalizing her base, normalizing and mainstreaming antisemitism and pro-Nazi agenda’.
Peter Somogyi (left) and his twin brother Thomas (right) were surrendered him to Josef Mengel at Auschwitz in July 1944
Mengele was perhaps the best known Nazi physician due to his experiments on twins at Auschwitz. Pictured are twins Thomas (left) and Peter Somogyi (right) who were surrendered to Mengele during the Holocaust
Owens, in episode 17 of her show Candace, seemingly tried to dispute historical accounts of how the Nazis experimented on Jews during the Holocaust.
‘It’s been embedded into our minds, the Nazis experimented on innocent people,’ she said.
‘I mean some of the stories by the way sound completely absurd like the idea they just like cut a human up and then sew them back together.
‘Why would you do that? Literally even if you’re the most evil person in the world that’s a tremendous waste of time and supplies. Just slice a person in half and sew them together? That just sounds like bizarre propaganda.’
However, the Nazis heavily documented the human experiments that they conducted throughout the Second World War.
From 1933 to 1945, Adolf Hitler and other powerful Nazi leaders – such as Heinrich Himmler – spearheaded a campaign to ‘cleanse’ German society of those viewed as biological threats to the ideal Aryan race.
The racial policies developed by Nazi Germany determined that Jews, Roma and Slavs – including Poles, Czechs, Russians and Serbs – were ‘racially inferior sub-humans’, and should therefore be removed from society.
A Polish witness is shown with a doctor which explains the nature of her wounds in 1946 while Nazi doctors were tried for conducting human experiments
Nazi officials enlisted physicians and medically trained geneticists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists to develop their policies on race and to try and create what would have effectively been Nazi super soldiers.
Mengele was perhaps the best known Nazi physician due to his experiments on twins at Auschwitz.
From 1943 to 1944, his experiments were of particular interest to Nazi high commands as one twin could serve as a test subject with the other as the control, and it was also hoped that his research could discover how Nazis could reproduce more twins.
Mengele’s cruel tests included the amputation of healthy limbs, deliberately infecting twins with diseases such as typhus, blood transfusions from one twin to the other and sewing twins together to create conjoined twins.
Eva-Mozes Kor, a survivor, claimed Mengele cross-transfused the blood of opposite sex twins to change their respective sexes, experimented on twins’ genitals and attempted to attach the urinary tract of a seven-year-old girl to her own colon.
Most twins died during Mengele’s procedures, but if any survived, they would be killed and dissected for comparative autopsies.
Candace Owens’s denial of the Holocaust atrocities is the latest scandal to plague the controversial commentator, pictured at a Turning Point event in June 2024
Social media users have also hit out at Owens over the denial, branding her a ‘degenerate’ and ‘one of the dumbest and most vile human beings on the planet’.
‘This is her lowest performance ever,’ one X user wrote.
‘Candy-O is a narcissist. She knows it’s a lie, but really really, really wants those clicks,’ another tweeted. ‘Wants to be relevant so bad.’
‘Vile is a kind word for what she has chosen to become……but vile is a good start,’ added another.
Some critics even questioned her mental state, with one tweeting: ‘Wow, she has gone off the deep end.’
One said they were ‘afraid something has happened to Candace’ because her commentary has ‘become more and more bizarre’ over the years.
Another added that she ‘seriously needs help’.
Social media users have also hit out at Owens over the denial, branding her a ‘degenerate’ and ‘one of the dumbest and most vile human beings on the planet’
Owens’ denial of the Holocaust atrocities is the latest scandal to plague the controversial commentator.
In March, she parted ways with The Daily Wire, which had been hosting her show, after weeks of tension with the right-wing outlet’s co-founder Ben Shapiro over the Israel–Hamas war and her promotion of various conspiracy theories.
She has also been engaged in fiery online debates with several members of the Jewish community.
She was also suspended from YouTube last year for alleged hate speech against the LGBTQ community.