Fake News: Chelsea Clinton Did NOT Claim Holocaust Added $3.5 Trillion To German Economy

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Chelsea Clinton Did NOT Claim Holocaust Added $3.5 Trillion To German Economy

Did Chelsea Clinton claim the Holocaust added $3.5 trillion to the German economy? No, of course not: the story was published by a christian-themed satire website that seems to think Holocaust jokes are funny. The quote is made up, it is not real.

The story originated from an article published by The Babylon Bee on August 16, 2018 titled "Chelsea Clinton Claims Holocaust Added $3.5 Trillion To German Economy" (archived here) which opened:

NEW YORK, NY--In a speech delivered at a pro-choice fundraiser, Chelsea Clinton claimed that the Holocaust added $3.5 trillion to the German economy.

"Think about all the impoverished people that the Third Reich was able to rid themselves of," she said. "Holocaust rights have always been first and foremost about economic rights."

She pointed out that all the family members of the "undesirables" killed by Hitler were then able to contribute to the war effort rather than take care of their burdensome family members. "It's not a disconnected fact that once the mass murder of people who were dragging down otherwise productive contributors to the economy was legalized, trillions were added to the German war machine."

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so some people will undoubtedly think it came from a real news source and will spread it as such:

Chelsea Clinton Claims Holocaust Added $3.5 Trillion To German Economy

NEW YORK, NY--In a speech delivered at a pro-choice fundraiser, Chelsea Clinton claimed that the Holocaust added $3.5 trillion to the German economy. "Think about all the impoverished people that the Third Reich was able to rid themselves of," she said. "Holocaust rights have always been first and foremost about economic rights." She pointed out ...

But "The Babylon Bee" comes with following dislaimer on every page:

The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.

Some of their greatest past hits include:

With a track record like that it is clear that you shouldn't take anything posted on the site seriously and you definitely shouldn't confuse it with real news.

We wrote about babylonbee.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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