Anne Frank Amsterdam Legal: Trump Envoy Denies Walz Comparison
JTA - In the lead-up to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, both the US State Department’s antisemitism envoy and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for invoking Anne Frank in discussions of federal immigration raids.
The remarks by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun,the antisemitism envoy nominated by US President donald Trump,that ”Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law” added fuel to an ongoing debate over the appropriateness of modern-day comparisons to the Holocaust. Other Jewish leaders have mobilized in force against immigration agents in the state.
“Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust,” Kaploun tweeted Monday.
He was responding to walz’s press conference over the weekend, in which the former Democratic vice-presidential candidate stated, “we have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank.”
Kaploun continued with a dig at the state’s large migrant community, the focus of chaotic Immigrations and Customs Enforcement activity that has prompted intense criticism and led to the shooting deaths of two protesters.
“Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law. She was hauled off to a death camp because of her race and religion. Her story has nothing to do with the illegal immigration, fraud, and lawlessness plaguing Minnesota today,” the envoy wrote. “Our brave law enforcement should be commended, not tarred with this historically illiterate and antisemitic comparison.”
His comments were followed two hours later by the Holocaust museum’s, which rebuked Walz while avoiding the subject of ICE operations.
Walz, a former public school teacher, wrote his master’s thesis on Holocaust education.
“Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish,” the museum tweeted Monday. “Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who is Jewish, last week rebuked a guest for comparing ICE detention facilities to concentration camps.
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