Seymour legislator faces backlash over Nazi quote

Seymour State Rep. Jim Lucas is again facing controversy for his social media posts.

Lucas changed his cover page photo to a screenshot of a quote supposedly by the famous Nazi Joseph Goebbels on his Facebook page. In part, it said:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it…”

Above the image of the quote on Lucas’s page was the title, “Joseph Goebbels: On the ‘Big Lie'” and underneath that was a link labeled “The Jewish Question”.

The CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute issued a statement Wednesday, condemning the quote and the link posted by Lucas.

“We are shocked and horrified that an Indiana lawmaker would make such a statement about Hitler’s chief architect and purveyor of hate speech, ultimately leading to the murder of over 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.”

CANDLES statement urged Indiana House Speaker, Todd Huston to condemn Lucas’s actions.

Lucas’ Democratic challenger for District 69, Chad Harmon, made a social media post calling out the sitting state representative for posting a Nazi quote.

The Indiana Democratic Party also condemned the post.

Soon after the controversy started, Lucas removed the quoted image from his Facebook cover page.

On his Facebook page, Lucas said he was posting a historical quote to educate people on how to recognize how evil begins.

He wrote: “If we don’t learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it. How else are we to learn from history if we can’t even discuss history?”

Previous social media controversies involving Lucas have included images of a noose hanging from a gallows and of black children dancing in their underwear.

In addition to Jackson County, Lucas’ district also includes part of southern Bartholomew, Jennings and Jefferson counties.

Our news-gathering partners at Network Indiana contributed to this story.