Jewish Caucus Demands Police Union Chief Resign Over Remarks About Nazi Germany

CHICAGO — A group of state lawmakers demanded the chief of the union representing rank-and-file Chicago police officers apologize and resign in response to his remarks comparing the city's coronavirus vaccine mandate to the Holocaust.

After Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced this week that all city employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 15, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara told the Chicago Sun-Times that officers of all ranks were united against the mandate.

“We’re in America, goddamn it. We don’t want to be forced to do anything. Period. This ain’t Nazi f------ Germany," Catanzara told the paper Wednesday. "[Where they say,] ‘Step into the f------ showers. The pills won’t hurt you.’”

On Friday, the 15-member Illinois Legislative Jewish Caucus issued a statement responding to Catanzara's remarks. It described vaccine mandates as a vital public health instrument, especially in the case of government employees who interact with the public.

"But the comparison of vaccine mandates to the Nazi genocide is despicable. While we don’t need to belabor the distinctions between poison gas and an FDA-approved vaccine, it bears saying: Vaccines are safe. They save lives. And the Holocaust is an unimaginable tragedy that happened to our people, not a flippant metaphor for the airing of ignorant, petty, aggrieved opinions," the group said.

"Catanzara has shown once and for all that his voice does not belong in civil public discourse," the statement continued. "We call upon him to resign immediately and to issue an apology for his intolerant and intolerable remarks to Jews everywhere."

According to Lightfoot's office, employees can apply for medical or religious exemptions from the vaccination requirement, and requests will be reviewed by the city's human resources department on a case-by-case basis.

The mayor's announcement of the policy did not include any details about mandatory testing for the unvaccinated or how the requirement would be enforced, although Catanzara suggested the city had threatened not to pay officers who refuse to get vaccinated.

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Fellow officers elected Catanzara in May 2020 with 55 percent of the vote in a runoff election over incumbent Kevin Graham. He has since faced multiple disciplinary proceedings before the Chicago Police Board, and two superintendents have so far been unsuccessful in efforts to fire him.

The union president's remarks about the vaccine mandate earlier drew swift condemnation from local Jewish groups.

"The comparison of mandatory vaccinations to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust is factually incorrect and deeply offensive to the millions of innocent people killed at the hands of the Nazis," tweeted the Midwest office of the Anti-Defamation League.

The Jewish Community Relations Council, an umbrella organization for dozens of Jewish groups and the community relations arm of the Jewish United Fund, also responded to Catanzara's remarks on social media.

"Nazis — often in police uniforms — murdered millions of Jews and others. CPD however is committed to protecting all of Chicago," it said in a tweet. "[Catanzara] comparing [Lightfoot's] vaccine mandate to Nazi gas chambers is ignorant & defiles the memory of the murdered and US GIs who defeated the Nazis."

The Jewish Caucus includes state Sens. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview), Julie Morrison (D-Lake Forest) and Ram Villivalam (D-Skokie), as well as state Reps. Jonathan Carroll (D-Northbrook), Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), Margaret Croke (D-Chicago), Daniel Didech (D-Buffalo Grove), Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston), Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago), Anna Moeller (D-Elgin), Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield), Denyse Wang Stoneback (D-Skokie) and Sam Yingling (D-Grayslake).

Catanzara addressed the controversy in a video message posted Friday afternoon. He said he had not intended his remarks to Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman to make it into print and said he would no longer take her calls.

"In no way was I trying to tie forced vaccinations to the atrocities of the Holocaust, which is why I never use the word 'Holocaust,'" Catanzara said. "I should not have made the reference like I did to the showers, and for that I am sorry. But the point I was trying to make is that when governments — whether it's Nazi Germany or modern-day Chicago or any other major city like New York and many others who are doing this — try to create policies that mandate their employees first to have to do things to their bodies, it will not stop there. You are opening up the door for the citizens to be next."

The union president, who said he had been vaccinated to make it easier to travel, explained that his comments were not intended to belittle Jewish people or the events of the Holocaust.

"I myself have visited visited the grounds of Auschwitz. It is the most solemn sacred ground I've ever set foot on. it's pretty humbling to walk and experience what those poor people had to go through," he added. "But we need to learn from our history so we do not end up repeating the mistakes of the past. We cannot let governments continue to erode our freedoms and dictate every facet of our life. Our membership spoke loudly, and I can tell you, they are absolutely — even the ones that were vaccinated — against a mandated vaccination program."