The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, a left-leaning nonprofit organization, compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler on Tuesday.
The organization, which frequently criticizes Trump and top officials in his administration, sent out a tweet suggesting there are "alarming parallels" between the president and Nazi Germany, the Hill reports.
In the tweet, the center focused on Hitler's early actions during his rule and tied them to the president.
The group said that Trump "creates his own media; he exploits youth at a rally; he endorses police brutality; he demonizes people who believe, look, or love differently; he strips vulnerable people of their families, jobs, and ability to live; and he believes Congress should change its rules to give him more power."
Alarming parallels of history escalate. pic.twitter.com/5P708XVa5h
— Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) August 8, 2017
The message did not actually mention Hitler, but the Anne Frank Center's executive director, Steven Goldstein, told Newsweek that the comparison was intentional.
"By the same token, it is responsible, and indeed our moral imperative, to point out parallels between actions taken by the Trump administration today and the actions taken by Germany in the 1930s before the Holocaust," Goldstein said. "1930s Germany imposed a series of escalating steps of oppression, including demonization, discrimination, and isolation of vulnerable communities, that evoke what we are seeing today. That comparison is just, and not to make the comparison would be a dereliction of our duty to ensure 'never again' to any people."
The center—whose ties to Anne Frank are unconfirmed and have been called into question—has accused Trump of being anti-Semitic, despite his daughter Ivanka being Jewish.
The organization has frequently delved into politics, calling for former press secretary Sean Spicer to be fired back in April. Most recently, the center accused Trump of waging "vicious wars on refugees, immigrants, women, people of color, LGBT people."
A war with North Korea would not be @POTUS' first. He has waged vicious wars on refugees, immigrants, women, people of color, LGBT people.
— Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) August 9, 2017
The center has frequently championed left-wing causes, using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on its Twitter account and encouraging cities to sue the Justice Department for its tough policies on sanctuary cities.
In April, the Atlantic wrote a detailed story on the controversial history of the Anne Frank Center, noting that the organization has been criticized for "politicizing" Anne Frank and not having leaders with scholarly backgrounds. Goldstein has a background in political organizing, and, according to the Atlantic, the center "shuttered its small museum and disbanded its board of advisers comprised of Holocaust experts. All of the staffers who were working there when Goldstein arrived have left."