Prime Minister Modi is being compared to Hitler by editing and adding the latter’s image to the original photo.

Prime Minister Modi held many rallies in Karnataka before the election. During that time he had also done many road shows. The Prime Minister also met some children in Kalaburgi district of Karnataka. In the same meeting, there was a barbed wire fence between him and the children. Opponents took this as an opportunity to criticize Modi. 

In the backdrop of this, few social media users are sharing an image comparing Modi with Hitler. In the viral image Hitler can be seen standing near children with barbed wire fence between them. 

However, Fact Crescendo found that the real image was edited and Hitler’s image was digitally added to the original image. 

Sharing the image, social media users wrote, “History repeats. Future is behind the barbed wire. Beware”

Facebook | Archive

The same claim with the image was widely shared in Telugu, Odia, Hindi and other languages. 

Fact Check- 

First, we ran a Google Reverse Image Search on the image of Hitler standing with the children. This led us to an image published on The Sun website on 27 January 2020. According to the report, this image shows the brutality of Hitler during World War II in which he killed many people in the Holocaust. The photo is accompanied by information that many of those killed in the Holocaust were children. Between 1940 and 1945, 23,000 children were killed in the Holocaust camps.

A keyword search on Google led us to the image of children standing behind barbed wire uploaded on Alamy website. According to the information, this photo was taken by Russian soldiers who rescued these children from Holocaust camps in 1945. 

You can see the same image here and here as well. 

After looking at the photos published on the above three websites, we found that Hitler is not standing with his children. This raised our suspicion that this image was edited. 

After this, we cropped Hitler’s image from the viral photo and ran a Google Reverse Image Search. We found an image on the Alamy website in which Hitler is standing in the same costume and posture. There is no sight of children in this image. Below you can see the image. 

It is clear from the above facts that in the original photo Hitler is not standing with the children killed in the Holocaust. The photo has been edited and Hitler’s image was digitally added to it.

Is it the first time Modi was compared to Hitler? 

No. From time to time many world leaders were compared to Hitler to defame their names. We found a tweet from 2018 in which both Hitler and Modi were standing holding the ear of a child. Comparing Modi with Hitler, a user asked people to find the difference between the two. 

But, we found that this image is also an edited one. In the real image, Hitler was standing holding the shoulder of the child and not ear.

A speech by PM Modi in 2019 was claimed to be inspired by Hitler’s speech. But Fact Crescendo English debunked that claim and proved it to be false. You can read the Fact Check here. 

Another post in 2020 compared Hitler to former US President Donald Trump. It was claimed that Donald Trump was holding the Bible in the same hand as Hitler. But the Fact Crescendo Hindi team proved this claim to be false. The original photo was edited and a Bible in Hitler’s hand was added. You can read our fact check at this link.

Conclusion: 

Fact Crescendo found that Hitler has been compared to many politicians from time to time. Although the viral photo shows the children being locked up in the Holocaust by Hitler, the original photo has been edited to include his photo with the children and compared it to Modi’s meeting the children prior to the Karnataka election.