A Twitter account dedicated to the Auschwitz Memorial has reached out to a Tipperary TD in the wake of his controversial comments about the Holocaust.
Independent TD Mattie McGrath said today that Covid certificates for indoor dining were akin to something from 1930s Nazi Germany.
Mr McGrath has been a vocal opponent of plans to open indoor hospitality only for those who have been vaccinated against Cvoid-19 or who have recovered from the virus.
He has previously described the move as “an alarming, Dickensian and indeed apartheid decision” and called for an independent inquiry into the National Public Health Emergency Team.
Speaking today as the government prepares to sign off on legislation for indoor dining and drinking, Mr McGrath and other opposition TDs once again criticised the plans.
"Is that where we've come to now, back to 1933 in Germany, we'll be all tagged in yellow with the mark of the beast on us, is that where we're going?" he said.
"I'm surprised at ye."
He said that the idea of only allowing vaccinated or recently recovered patrons to access pubs and restaurants indoors is "totally illogical and stupid and unworkable and fanciful".
Mr McGrath's remarks were seen as far away as Poland this afternoon, with the Auschwitz museum issuing a response.
The Twitter account for the memorial which preserves the site of the former German Nazi Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp tagged the TD in a tweet urging him to learn more about the history of the Holocaust.
It read: "@mattiemcgrathtd ‘Holocaust–the destruction of European Jews’ A seven-chapter online course about the history of the #Holocaust. All parts below."
Below the message was a thread containing links to various information resources about the Holocaust.
A subsequent tweet said: "Instrumentalization of the tragedy of all people who between 1933-45 suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the hateful totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline."
Mr McGrath faced criticism from other TDs following his comments today, with many condemning his comparison of indoor dining rules to Nazi Germany and the genocide of six million Jews.
Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said "nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to Nazi Germany".
"Every comparison made diminishes the memory of that unique evil, and the slaughter of millions of Jews," he said.
"We must continue to remember the absolute horror and terror of the Holocaust to ensure it can never happen again."
