Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, had a brilliant plan for explaining why Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is both Jewish and a Nazi: just claim, on Holocaust Memorial Day, that Jews themselves are the worst anti-semites and that Hitler himself had Jewish blood.
Unfortunately for Russia, the plan has not survived contact with anything, let alone the enemy.
When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to "de-Nazify" Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: "I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. [That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews." …
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said: "Such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility.
Haaretz's Ofer Aderet explains one origin of the conspiracy theory, rooted in the mystery of Hitler's paternal grandfather's identity (as summarized below on Wikipedia). There is no credible evidence he (and therefore Hitler) had significant Jewish ancestry.
Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that [Hitler's grandmother] had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered [Hitler's father].[10] No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence,[11] and Jewish residency in Styria had been illegal for nearly 400 years and would not become legal again until decades after Alois [Hitler]'s birth,[11][12] so historians dismiss the claim that Alois 's father was Jewish.[13][14]
