Newspaper’s post equates mask mandate with Holocaust

TOPEKA, KAN. >> A weekly Kansas newspaper whose publisher is a county Republican Party chairman posted a cartoon on its Facebook page likening the Democratic governor’s order requiring people to wear masks in public to the roundup and slaughter of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

The cartoon on the Anderson County Review’s Facebook page depicts Gov. Laura Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David on it, next to a drawing of people being loaded onto train cars. Its caption is, “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car.”

The newspaper posted the cartoon Friday, the day that Kelly’s mask order aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus took effect. It has drawn several hundred comments, many of them strongly critical.

Publisher Dane Hicks, who is also Anderson County’s GOP chairman, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he would answer emailed questions about the cartoon once he could reach a computer. His newspaper is based in the county seat of Garnett, about 65 miles southwest of Kansas City, and has a circulation of about 2,100, according to the Kansas Press Association.

Kelly, who is Catholic, issued a statement saying, “Mr. Hicks’ decision to publish anti-semitic imagery is deeply offensive and he should remove it immediately.”

Some Republicans have criticized Kelly’s order as infringing on personal liberties, though Kansas law allows counties to opt out and Anderson County has done so.

The governor issued the order because of a resurgence in reported coronavirus cases that increased the state’s total to nearly 16,000 as of Friday.