University of Witwatersrand SRC President Mcebo Dlamini. Photo: Screenshot

A Jewish student at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwaterstrand wrote an impassioned letter to Student Representative Council president Mcebo Dlamini, who prompted outrage over writing “I love Adolf Hitler” in a Facebook post.

“The only offence I have committed against you is simply being Jewish,” wrote the student in a letter published by South African news portal Times Live.

“I have never met you, and most likely we have much in common yet you HATE me with so much unbridled passion – if only you could express that passion in standing up for those that have suffered from xenophobic violence,” the student said.

Dlamini raised eyebrows when he wrote “I love Adolf Hitler” as part of a Facebook post last Saturday.

“What about our Jewish brothers and sisters who fought side-by-side together with their oppressed fellow South Africans to bring down the evil Nationalist regime – people like Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich, Harold Wolpe, Helen Suzman and so many others?” wrote the student. “All I ask is for you to love us – as Jews – for being South Africans and the many commonalities we share, rather than hating us for the few differences we possess.”

The student recalled Hitler’s policy of sterilizing what the Nazi regime called “Rhineland Bastards,” the children of mixed African and German couples.

To conclude, the student called on Dlamini simply “to love.”

The South African Jewish Union took a harder stance, saying “firm action” would be taken against Dlamini and demanding he step down.

Dlamini defended his remarks meanwhile, telling South African eNCA news portal it was “unfortunate people chose to interpret my words in their own way,” claiming the “I love Hitler” comment was taken out of context. Dlamini said he was comparing Nazi Germany and Israel.

“As an academic myself I think I am allowed to debate and scrutinize issues,” he said.

Dlamini said he admired Hitler because the German dictator managed to “uplift the spirit of the German people,” as well as the Nazi leader’s “organizational skills.”

He said, “What puzzles me is that people make the Jewish Holocaust … to be worse than the black Apartheid.”