Trump’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Statement Mentions Gays And Jews, Unlike Last Year
Commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed January 27, the White House's presidential statement actually mentions both Jewish and gay people, Politico reports.
After causing outrage last year for its omission of any mention of Jewish people, the new statement specifically mentions the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The message also mentions the persecution and murder of "gays," among other victimized groups.
Read yesterday's White House statement in full below.
Tomorrow marks the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death and concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. We take this opportunity to recall the Nazis’ systematic persecution and brutal murder of six million Jewish people. In their death camps and under their inhuman rule, the Nazis also enslaved and killed millions of Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, priests and religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their brutal regime.
Our Nation is indebted to the Holocaust’s survivors. Despite the trauma they carry with them, they continue to educate us by sharing their experiences, strength, wisdom, and generosity of spirit to advance respect for human rights. Although they are aging and their numbers are slowly dwindling, their stories remain with us, giving us the strength to combat intolerance, including anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry and discrimination.
Every generation must learn and apply the lessons of the Holocaust to prevent new horrors against humanity from occurring. As I have said: “We will stamp out prejudice. We will condemn hatred. We will bear witness, and we will act.” In this spirit, we must join together across our nations and with people of goodwill around the world to eliminate prejudice and promote more just societies. We must remain vigilant to protect the fundamental rights and inherent dignity of every human being.
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we acknowledge this dark stain on human history and vow to never let it happen again.
While Trump held bilateral meetings with world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, First Lady Melania Trump visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In a statement issued after her visit, she also noted the "six million Jews lost in the Holocaust and the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution."
Trump has Jewish grandchildren by daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism. Members of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect are among those who have criticized Trump for his failure to condemn neo-Nazis.
Defending last year's statement and its omission of Jews, current White House communications director said that "despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group, and we took into account all of those who suffered."
Then-press secretary Sean Spicer called criticism of the statement "pathetic," adding that one of the statement's writers was "both Jewish and the descendant of Holocaust survivors."