Arnold Schwarzenegger released a 12-minute video addressing the rise of antisemitism on Monday (March 6th). The Terminator actor began his speech by sharing his experience visiting Auschwitz recently, where Nazis killed 1.1 million Jews during World War II. He also mentioned his father, who was a member of the Nazi party.
“They fell for a horrible, loser ideology,” Schwarzenegger said in the video. “They were lied to and misled into a path that ended in misery … they bought into the idea that the only way to make their lives better was to make other lives worse …. It breaks you … it is the path of the weak … there has never been a successful movement based on hate.”
The Predator actor then directly addressed people who have adopted a hateful worldview. “No matter how far you’ve gone, you still have a chance to choose a life of strength … You have to fight the war against yourself … The other path is easier – you don’t have to change anything, everything in your life that you aren’t happy about can be somebody else’s fault … You will end up broken. I don’t want you to go through all that,” he said.
