Holocaust Museum slams Tim Walz for comparison of ICE to Nazi horrors seen by Anne Frank

The US Holocaust Museum made a sharp rebuke against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after he likened the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota to the horrors that were seen by Anne Frank in the Nazi-occupied Nethertlands.

The museum posted on X, “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.”

During a press conference on Sunday, Walz made a comparison between the fear that is being felt by illegal immigrants who are subject to removal by ICE to the fears that Anne Frank had in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. He invoked “The Diary of a Young Girl,” written by Anne Frank about her time in hiding in the Dutch city, in order to drive home his point.

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

Anne Frank, who was a Jewish teenager during the time of the Holocaust, had written down her life experiences in hiding from the Nazis before she was captured and then killed at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The press conference from Walz came the day after armed anti-ICE agitator Alex Pretti was shot by Border Patrol as he resisted arrest. There are still some questions to answer about the shooting and body cam footage is being investigated in the incident.

Pretti was a member of an anti-ICE Signal group chat in Minneapolis prior to being shot. Similar Signal chats have been used to monitor, identify, and impede ICE officers.