“People would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress,” the president went on, suggesting that the Nazis were known for their generosity.

Sounds like he’s talking about Germans in general to me, while the article immediately says that he must mean Nazis.

There’s a lot of dumb shit Trump says. I don’t think this is one of those things (his comparison between the holocaust and the hostages is still weird, but that’s typical “par for the course”).