Gov. Tim Walz is facing criticism from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for comparing the experience of Minnesota children living through the state’s chaotic federal immigration enforcement surge with that of Anne Frank’s experience hiding from Nazi Germans.
His comment came during a news conference Sunday following federal agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse.
“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,” he said. “Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
Walz taught high school social studies before he became a politician.
On Monday, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum rebuked Walz’s comment on social media.
“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 said in a post on X. “Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”
The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year, is the board that oversees the museum. It consists of 55 members appointed by the president of the United States, as well as a handful of members from the Senate and the House of Representatives and three ex officio members from the departments of Education, Interior and State.
President Donald Trump fired several members of the board last year who had been appointed by former President Joe Biden, including former Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, who criticized Trump’s politicization of Holocaust remembrance, according to The New York Times.
