Actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, during an interview with CNN, spoke about antisemitism and his family's antisemitic past.
At a forum at the University of Southern California, the actor had stated that he had been "born with a father that was a Nazi." When later asked about the statement by CNN's Dana Bash, he answered: "My father was, and so many other millions of men were, sucked into a hate system through lies and deceit. And so, we have seen where that leads."
Schwarzenegger explained the source of his aversion to antisemitism: "I’ve seen it firsthand how broken this man’s – this man was. The kinds of atrocities that happened. How many millions of people had to die, and then they ended up losers … in the Confederacy, losers, as they all have, this just doesn’t work. I mean, let’s just go and get along. And love is more powerful than hate."
Schwarzenegger stated at the forum that he did not know the cause of the recent rise in hate and antisemitic violence but called to find a way to tone it down.
"I think it’s very clear that the more liberal we go with social issues," he added, "you see the other side becoming more and more angry, and there’s more and more hate in general,” he said. “There are people who created the insurrection and, you know, went absolutely berserk in Washington on January 6th. And it’s just so many people that are angry. Not just angry about Whites against Blacks, or people against Jews and all this, but just angry in general."
In March, the former governor released a video in which he described the Nazis of his father’s generation as “losers” who were “misled into a path that ended in misery.”
In the clip, the actor and former governor of California described how his father, a Nazi party member, was a broken man after the war who turned to alcohol to cope. He cautioned viewers that “there has never been a successful movement based on hate.”