U.S. State Department Responds to Roger Waters Controversy

Late last month , an investigation was launched by German police into Roger Waters regarding his utilization of Nazi imagery during specific segments of his concerts in Berlin. During these performances, he would dress in a uniform resembling that of an SS officer, reminiscent of Bob Geldof’s fascist character from the film “The Wall” released in 1982. Additionally, he incorporated props featuring Third Reich imagery, which he has been using for over a decade.

In response to the controversy, Waters defended himself, asserting that attempts to portray these elements of the show differently are disingenuous and politically motivated. However, during his subsequent shows in Frankfurt, he chose not to wear the demagogue uniform. Since then, Waters has occasionally donned the outfit in certain performances (wearing it in London and Glasgow but abstaining in Birmingham).

The Waters controversy attracted the attention of the US State Department. In response to a tweet by Deborah Lipstadt, the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, the State Department issued a written statement fully concurring with the condemnation of Roger Waters and his reprehensible distortion of the Holocaust. According to the statement, the Berlin concert contained imagery deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust. The State Department further criticized Waters for his long history of employing anti-Semitic tropes to denigrate the Jewish community.

Despite the backlash, Waters continues to defend himself. In a recent interview with Double Down News, he reiterated that the contentious elements of his show are not new and highlighted his extensive history of speaking out against authoritarianism.

“If we shout the lie loud enough — ‘Roger Waters is an antisemite’ — then we’ll be all right, we’ll get people to believe it, we can vilify him, we can probably destroy him and we will get him in the end as well,” Waters said as a hypothetical. “No, you won’t because it’s a lie. You can gather as many fucking morons together as you want to repeat your lie, but it remains a vicious lie.”