The US Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a public rebuke of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after remarks he made comparing federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis to the persecution faced by Anne Frank during World War II.
The museum responded on X following Walz’s comments at a Sunday press conference, writing, “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. 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.”
Walz made the comparison while speaking about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the state, saying that illegal immigrants facing removal are living in fear similar to those who hid from the Nazis. He referenced Anne Frank’s diary, describing it as a story many Americans grew up reading.
“Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank,” Walz said, claiming that children are now “hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager, documented her life in hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam before she was captured by German forces and later killed at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Walz’s remarks came one day after an armed anti-ICE activist, Alex Pretti, was shot by Border Patrol agents during an encounter in Minneapolis. Authorities have said Pretti was resisting arrest at the time of the shooting, and body camera footage is currently under review.
Pretti was also a member of an anti-ICE Signal group chat prior to the incident. Similar encrypted chats have been used by activists to track and interfere with ICE operations in the area.
