The U.S. Holocaust Museum has slammed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for comparing the crisis in Minneapolis to the tragic life of Anne Frank.
Walz alluded to Frank during a press conference Sunday, warning children were “hiding in their houses” from ICE agents, just as the Jewish teenager hid from the Nazis during World War 2.
“We have got children hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz told reporters. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s gonna write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
The governor made the comparison just two days before International Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks the anniversary of the liberation of prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
“Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish,” a spokesperson for the museum wrote on X. “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.”
The museum’s staff were not the only people who shared their fury at Walz’s comparison.
Trump’s antisemitism envoy, Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun posted on X: “Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust.
“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,” he continued. “Her story has nothing to do with the illegal immigration, fraud, and lawlessness plaguing Minnesota today.
“Our brave law enforcement should be commended, not tarred with this historically illiterate and antisemitic comparison.”
And Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish-American activist, branded Walz “evil” for his remarks.
“One million Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust. Illegal immigrants are offered thousands of dollars to take a free flight home,” he wrote on X, before using an offensive slur to describe Walz.
Walz’s speech came a day after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The 37-year-old nurse was killed while attending a protest against the surge of ICE agents into Minnesota.
Trump administration officials claimed that he brandished a firearm, although this account has been widely disputed. His killing has sparked a fresh wave of demonstrations against the immigration crackdown, with tensions in the city already having been at an all-time high following the shooting of mom-of-three Renee Good by an ICE agent.
The Minnesota governor has previously compared ICE agents to a “modern-day Gestapo”.
“They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared,” Walz said last year.
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