Bundy told a crowd of protesters at the State Capitol building in Boise that European Jews thought "putting their head down and trying to not be noticed was the better way" during the Second World War, according to a Haaretz report.
“Just look at the pictures of the Holocaust. It always amazes me how you see pictures of men and women stripped completely naked, lined up and facing a mass grave, where they are shooting them in the back of the head and falling in the grave,” Bundy added.
Asking the crowd in a rhetorical fashion, Bundy questioned why European Jews "would line up knowing" that they would be murdered.
“You must ask yourself: Why did the Jewish people not – how did they get in that position? I’m not someone to be a judge of another people, but we must learn from history. Because they thought that putting their head down and trying to not be noticed was the better way. They thought that compliance would get them through it, and it was just a period of time that they might just pass through and end up better on the other end," Bundy noted.
“And that is a decision that we have to make right now. Is it better if we just comply? Is it safer to comply? If we comply now, they will go further … until we are lined up naked facing a mass grave and being shot in the back of the head.”
Bundy also compared his own experience in actions revolving around land disptues against the US Federal Government to the narrative of the Holocaust, saying that “I have been there and I know for a fact that this is true: When you have faced so much tyranny in your life, there is a point when you would rather line up naked and get shot in the head. And, my friends, why we’re here today right now is to make sure that never happens!”
The ongoing protest in Idaho to ease coronavirus restrictions is part of a number of demonstrations taking place in the United States. On April 30, hundreds of protesters gathered at Michigan's state Capitol in Lansing on Thursday to protest Governor Gretchen Whitmer's request to extend the state of emergency to combat COVID-19, an appeal Republican lawmakers there have opposed.