What did David Volodzko tweet? Hitler controversy explained as Seattle Times fires columnist

American writer David Volodzko was fired from The Seattle Times after he made some controversial remarks about Adolf Hitler. On July 14, 2023, the publishing company took to its Twitter handle to release a lengthy statement, highlighting that "effective immediately," Volodzko was no longer employed by the company.

The release read:

“A Seattle Times editorial writer engaged in Twitter recently in a way that is inconsistent with our company values and those of our family ownership. While we passionately believe in creating lively discourse through a variety of viewpoints, we do so with respect and appreciation for all communities."

The incident happened right after Volodzko published his first column in the media outlet, titled Dear Fremont: We need to talk about Lenin and your statue of the genocidal tyrant, which talked about why the monument should be removed. However, it was not the column but the subsequent tweets made by him that cost him his job.

In a lengthy tweet thread where he shared his new work, David Volodzko doubled down his thoughts and suggested that Hitler was not as evil as Vladimir Lenin since the former "only targeted people he personally believed were harmful to society whereas Lenin targeted even those he himself did not believe were harmful in any way.”

The publication did not outrightly mention David Volodzko's tweet as the reason behind his firing and is still available to read on the publication's website.

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David Volodzko claims his grandparent came to the US after escaping a Nazi camp

In a series of controversial tweets, David Volodzko furthered his stance on how his grandfather came to the United States as a refugee "after escaping a Nazi concentration camp.

"The only thing worse, he said with bitterness in his voice, was the Russia Lenin had built."

At one point in time, Volodzko was countered by another Twitter user who mentioned genocide while responding to his tweet about Hitler. The user wrote:

"Yep the big problem with genocide is whether or not you sincerely believe that the people you're genociding are harmful to society."

To this, David Volodzko replied:

"I'm not talking about genocide."

When the user sarcastically asked him if genocide was not a "key part of Hitler's 'targeting people,'" David said:

"Yes, but I wasn't talking about genocide. Did you bother to read what I wrote?"

David Voldozko also mentioned neo-Nazis in Russia to prove his stance on the situation.

“In Russia, racist attacks are so common one cannot keep track. Neo-Nazism thrives, the government fans the flames, Ukraine is on fire.”

The tweets garnered immense backlash from netizens and all the tweets have since been deleted from Voldozko's Twitter handle.

David Voldozko, who has his work published in several publications like The Nation and The New York magazine, later apologized for the controversy caused by his tweet.