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‘I Am Correct:’ School Board Candidate Doubles Down After Declaring ‘All Nazis Weren’t Bad’

“Who is to say if we were both there in the same place and same time, that we wouldn't have done the same thing,” the candidate, Matt Keefer, said in a comment on Facebook.

A candidate for a local school board in Zionsville, Indiana, who sparked backlash earlier this week for arguing that “all Nazis weren’t bad” is doubling down on his comments and lashing out at critics he says “tried to tear him down.”

Dr. Matt Keefer posted the initial comment Monday under a post on his campaign page asking, “Would teaching students 'all Nazis are bad' be considered indoctrination?”

“All Nazis weren’t ‘bad,’ as you specify,” Keefer responded, the Indy Star reported. “They did horrible things. They were in a group frenzy in both cases you site (sic). Who is to say if we were both there in the same place and same time, that we wouldn't have done the same thing.”

The candidate then rambled, comparing those who joined the Nazi Party to those who wore masks, used social distancing, and got a vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parents in the community expressed shock at his comments, with one mother telling Fox 59 the whole ordeal was “sickening.”

“It’s so sad that this is the leadership or the adults of our community guiding our kids today and more than a dozen people are saying, ‘go, go get them, go get the weak,’” she said.

“When you hear statements like this, it diminishes The Holocaust, it diminishes the memory,” Jacob Markey, executive director of the Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), said in a statement to local media.

“We have families; we have survivors who are still alive, who live in Indianapolis, all around the world. Many of them are the only ones who survived; this hurts so much inside.”

It initially appeared that Keefer may have regretted his words after a wave of backlash online. He deleted his comments and many of those that came in response to it, while also limiting who could comment on his campaign page.

But then Keefer, listed as an anesthesiologist and Indiana University graduate on his LinkedIn, came back Thursday to double down on his claim.

“To the Constituents of Zionsville Community Schools,” he posted. “A few days ago I made the comment ‘not all Nazis were bad’ in my response to a question posed to me on Facebook. I am correct.”

Keefer went on to type a winding explanation as to why he’s right, all without an apology in sight.

“In any group that gets labeled there are all types of people in that group,” he wrote. “Pick a group in the world today and it will not have homogeneity throughout.”

“It is incumbent on us to seek to understand people that think differently,” he wrote.

While Keefer never apologized, he did draw parallels between his comment and China, posing the question: “Is every single member of the Chinese Communist Party ‘bad’ (keep in mind there are almost 97 million)?...No.”

With comments limited on his campaign page, it's hard to know how his potential constituents in the city of 28,000—should he win a seat on the school board—actually feel about his remarks.

“I believe the majority of people that read this will understand that my words are an accurate representation of who I am,” Keefer said. “There are a few that will read this and try to shout me down rather than seek to understand. That is fine.”