What did the Holocaust museum say about Gov. Waltz’ comparison of ICE operations to Anne Frank?
Executive summary
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum publicly rebuked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for likening the fear of some Minnesota children amid ICE operations to Anne Frank’s experience, calling the comparison “deeply offensive” and saying “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish” [1]. The museum said leaders who make “false equivalencies” to the Holocaust for political purposes are never acceptable and warned that exploiting the Holocaust is particularly harmful as antisemitism rises [2] [1].
1. What the Holocaust Museum actually said
In a terse statement posted on X, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum wrote that “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish,” and that “leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable,” adding that “exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges” [1] [2]. Multiple outlets reproduced that X post verbatim, and the museum framed its rebuke as both a factual correction about the specificity of Anne Frank’s persecution and a moral objection to equating contemporary enforcement actions with the Nazi campaign of genocide [3] [4].
2. The remark that provoked the rebuke
Gov. Walz invoked Anne Frank during a press conference about ICE operations in Minnesota, saying “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,” and adding, “Somebody’s going to write that children's story about Minnesota” [2] [1]. The comment came amid heightened tensions around a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis and shortly before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a timing several outlets flagged in reporting [5] [6].
3. Museum’s core objections and the historical distinction it emphasized
The museum’s response centered on two connected objections: a factual one and an ethical one. Factually, the museum emphasized that Anne Frank and millions of others were targeted and murdered on the basis of race and religion in a systematic campaign of extermination unique to the Holocaust—events that it said are inherently different from law-enforcement actions in Minnesota [4] [7]. Ethically, the museum insisted that invoking Holocaust victims to make contemporary political points “cheapens” that history and is “deeply offensive,” particularly as antisemitic incidents are a rising concern [8] [1].
4. Political context and competing reactions
Responses split along partisan and advocacy lines: critics called Walz’s analogy offensive and irresponsible, with some commentators and figures reacting angrily on social media, while Walz and his supporters framed the comparison as a moral appeal to protect frightened children amid aggressive immigration enforcement [9] [10]. Reporters noted Walz has used intense historical analogies before—he previously compared ICE to the Gestapo—pointing to a pattern that the museum and opponents cited in their rebuttals [8] [6].
5. The broader implications of the exchange
The museum’s rebuke underscores how Holocaust memory functions as a boundary for public discourse: institutions devoted to remembrance often push back when analogies appear to relativize genocide, arguing such comparisons can distract from substantive debate and inflame tensions during spikes in antisemitism [4] [8]. At the same time, proponents of Walz’s language argue that vivid historical references can draw urgent attention to the lived fear of children during enforcement actions, a claim the museum explicitly rejected as a false equivalency [2] [1]. Reporting reviewed here does not include a direct, contemporaneous response from Gov. Walz to the museum’s post [6].