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Tkacka15 Posted 8 years ago
Vocabulary

To minimise the one that killed millions

"I try to avoid Nazi comparisons, chiefly because they’re almost always wrong and because, far from dramatising whatever horror is under way, they usually serve to minimise the one that killed millions in the 1940s. And yet, there’s a cost to such self-restraint."

(The Guardian.)

I understand that noun phrase, in the passage above, "the one that killed millions in the 1940s" refers to Hitler.

My question is: how should the verb "to minimise" be interpreted in the context above? Does it mean that Hitler's crimes are taken less seriously than they should be?

  

Top answer

"the one" doesn't mean Hitler, it means "the horror" (referring to the horror that Hitler perpetrated). "minimise" means make (the horror) seem less serious or less dreadful.

  • "the one" doesn't mean Hitler, it means "the horror" (referring to the horror that Hitler perpetrated).
  • "minimise" means make (the horror) seem less serious or less dreadful.
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1 Answers
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"the one" doesn't mean Hitler, it means "the horror" (referring to the horror that Hitler perpetrated).

"minimise" means make (the horror) seem less serious or less dreadful.

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