When it comes to people with the lived experience to speak about the danger posed by presidential nominee Donald Trump, you can't really do much better than a Holocaust survivor.
And an 88-year-old gay survivor of that horrifying period in world history has taken TikTok by storm since joining the app in recent weeks to share her story—and her take on Trump's candidacy.
Grandma Elli describes herself as "a Holocaust survivor and a gay woman," and has shared her childhood experiences in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland on her TikTok page.
Having narrowly survived the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler, she has a singular perspective on the danger the United States is in as it teeters on the brink of dictatorship, and she is using her newfound TikTok fame to plead with people to stop Trump's rise.
In an intro video on her page, Grandma Elli gave it to viewers straight:
“I’ve been around a long time and seen many crises but never like this one in our country."
Which is pretty bracing coming from a survivor of arguably the darkest crisis our modern world has ever faced.
She framed our upcoming election as coming down to one simple question:
"Do we want to continue our democracy, civil liberties and free elections, or do we want a wannabe dictator, by his own words, who will go after our freedoms one by one, dismantle them, then take vengeance?”
Grandma Elli went on to draw direct comparisons to her memories of Hitler's regime and the rhetoric and campaign promises of Donald Trump, especially when it comes to migrants and immigrants, whom Trump has referred to as "vermin" and about whom he has spread dangerous lies, like his claims that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating people's pets.
“Terror is how dictators maintain their power. They use fear, bullying and violence in order to do so."
“We have a history in this country of violence, as you know. Remember the KKK? There are groups that would like to go back to those days, and their slogan is: Make America Great Again. We know what they mean by that.”
Grandma Elli is also an artist and has shown her artworks in her videos. In another, she featured a piece called "Warning" that drew further parallels between Trump and Hitler.
Her warning? "Trump is following Hitler's playbook," she said. In her caption, she added, "when people tell you who they are, believe them."
On TikTok, users were sobered by Grandma Elli's perspective, and applauded her for sharing it.
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Here's hoping enough people in our country heed warnings like Grandma Elli's in the election next month.
@omahajoe/Bluesky
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