A French public broadcaster has been accused of spreading anti-Christian messaging by saying that the tradition of Christmas markets is tied to Adolph Hitler and the Nazis.
This week, taxpayer-funded Franceinfo published a video titled “Christmas markets, a tradition rehabilitated by the Nazis” on social media, which, according to Le Figaro, opened with the question: “Did you know there’s a link between the Nazis and our beloved Christmas markets?”
The broadcaster went on to claim that the tradition was “largely revived” by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolph Hitler in the 1930s as a means of promoting economic growth by encouraging the purchase of goods made in Germany at Christmas markets.
While Franceinfo journalist Antoine Milan Depeuille acknowledged that Christmas markets predate the formation of the Nazi party by hundreds of years during the Holy Roman Empire and spread widely across the continent during the Industrial Revolution, he claimed that they made a “strong comeback” in Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s after being pushed to the periphery of cities by “elites”.
“With the Nazi dictatorship, Christmas became a nationalist holiday. Christmas markets helped promote German heritage,” and “stimulate the economy with products made in Germany,” he said, claiming that the Nazis “decided to reinstate Christmas markets in city centres”.
Amid steep backlash on social media, with the broadcaster facing accusations of anti-Christian bias, Franceinfo removed the video from its accounts.
The public broadcaster’s move to tie Christmas markets to the Nazis was hailed by the French Communist Party-aligned L’Humanité newspaper, which declared: “Franceinfo is right: our Christmas markets do indeed have a link with the Nazis! Much to the dismay of the far right, which seeks to rewrite history while also attacking public service in the process.”
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