Several social media users shared a doctored image of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler standing next to a group of children with barbed wire in between, alongside a recent image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posts interacting with children across a barb-wired fence. The posts were shared with a caption that purportedly compared the two leaders on their manner of interacting with children.
BOOM found that the image of Hitler being shared is edited, with his frame being digitally added to a photo of child survivors standing behind a barb-wired fence in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany.
Modi, during a recent visit to Kalaburagi in Karnataka ahead of the state elections, interacted with children across a barb-wired fence, drawing sharp citicism from opposition leaders and social media users. The posts with his images alongside Hitler's doctored image is viral in this backdrop.
Actor-turned-political activist Prakash Raj, shared the doctored image alongside the photo of Modi, with the following caption in English and Kannada:
"History repeats..Future is behind the Barbed wire .. BEWARE..ಇತಿಹಾಸ ಮರುಕಳಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ .. ಭವಿಷ್ಯ ಮುಳ್ಳು ತಂತಿಯ ಹಿಂದಿದೆ . ಎಚ್ಚೆತ್ತುಕೊಳ್ಳಿ #justasking."
Many other Twitter users shared the exact same images with the English portion of the caption shared by Raj.
We also found posts on Facebook being shared with the same images and caption. View such posts here, here and here.
Fact-Check
BOOM did a Google reverse image search using the viral photo, which led us to several links to photographs of child survivors of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
We found a similar image of the children standing behind the barb-wired fence as the viral photo, being shared on the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Hitler, however, cannot be seen in the photo.
Furthermore, we found stock photos of Hitler on Alamy, which was an exact match with his frame in the viral photo.
Comparing the viral image with the images of the children and that of Hitler, it is clear that Hitler's frame was digitally added to the image of the children in the viral photo.
In 2019, another doctored image of Hitler went viral, which bore close resemblance to a photograph of Modi pulling the ears of a child, in a purported attempt at comparison between the two, and was fact-checked by BOOM.
