Billionaire Tom Perkins Likens US Super Rich Treatment to Jewish Holocaust
Billionaire Tom Perkins Likens US Super Rich Treatment to Jewish Holocaust Reuters

Billionaire Thomas 'Tom' Perkins has slammed the "progressive war on the American 1%" by claiming the US super rich are being persecuted in the same way that Jews were treated by the Nazis in World War II.

In a letter sent to the Wall Street Journal, the 82-year-old cofounder of famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said there are great parallels between the treatment of the richest Americans – dubbed the 1%- and the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany that resulted in the Holocaust.

"Writing from the epicentre of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich," said Perkins in a letter to the WSJ.

I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its one percent
- Tom Perkins

"From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent.

"There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these 'techno geeks' can pay."

Perkins eventually ended the letter by claiming that there is a "very dangerous drift in our American thinking," before adding "Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?"

Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?
- Tom Perkins

During WWII, Kristallnacht or 'Night of Broken Glass', resulted in a series of coordinated attacks against Jews, their properties and businesses, resulting in 30,000 Jews being arrests and imprisoned in concentration camps.

Perkins recently hit the headlines after splashing out $150m on a super yacht called the Maltese Falcon. However, this hardly makes a dent in his wallet as he is worth around $8bn.

Perkins was educated in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard and is Silicon Valley's most famous veterans.