Walz Silent After Condemnations of His Comparing ICE Operations to Holocaust

The office of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has not responded to condemnations of his comparing illegal alien children to Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Monday issued a statement rebuking “leaders” for using Frank’s tragic story for “political purposes,” but did not mention Walz by name.

Walz had made the reference at a press conference Sunday in Minnesota, following the shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti involving Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.  

Walz paid respects to Pretti’s family before criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in his state.  

“We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz said. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”  

On Monday, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a statement on X seemingly in response to Walz.  

“Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable,” the museum’s account stated.

“Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges,” the museum wrote.  

The Daily Signal made multiple attempts to contact Walz’s office to learn if the governor plans to issue an statement or apologize, but received no reply.  

Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929, just four years before Adolf Hitler rose to power, and moved with her family to Amsterdam after the Nazis took power in Germany.

When the Nazis took control of the Netherlands, they began arresting Jews and sending them to concentration camps. Frank and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam for about two years until they were discovered in 1944. Frank died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.  

Her diary she kept while in hiding became one of the most widely-read works of nonfiction in the world after her death, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, was critical of Walz for making the Anne Frank comparison.

“Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust,” Kaploun wrote on X. “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,” Kaploun stated. 

“Our brave law enforcement should be commended, not tarred with this historically illiterate and antisemitic comparison,” Kaploun added.  

The Trump administration had launched a large immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities in December that has since been expanded to the rest of the state. 

Anti-immigration enforcement protests began when federal agents arrived in the city, but increased following the ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 that killed 37-year-old Renee Good. 

Following Pretti’s death on Saturday, President Donald Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to take over the operation. Homan is scheduled to meet with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday.  

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