Trump condemns anti-Semitism at Holocaust Remembrance event
President Trump came down hard against anti-Semitism and threats of violence against the Jewish people on a day honoring those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
“Even today there are those who want to forget the past, there are even those filled with such hate, total hate, that they want to erase the Holocaust from history. Those who deny the Holocaust are an accomplice to this horrible evil and (we) will never be silent, we just won’t, we will never ever be silent in the face of evil again,” said Trump, at the National Days of Remembrance ceremony on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
The president went on to say that denying the Holocaust is only one of the many forms of dangerous anti-semitism that continues to persist around the world.
“We’ve seen anti-Semitism on campuses, in the public square and in threats against Jewish citizens, even worse it’s been on display in the most sinister manner when terrorist attack Jewish communities or when aggressors threaten Israel with total and complete destruction,” said Trump.
Anti-Semitic threats of violence have persisted across the United States in the months following the 2016 presidential election, including a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers and day schools.
Israeli officials have since indicted an 18-year old American-Israeli Jew for the string of bomb threats.
The president pledged to confront anti-Semitism and to reaffirmed his commitment to stand with the Jewish people and the state of Israel.
Mr. Trump also spoke directly to survivors of the holocaust during the solemn occasion, saying he was “deeply moved to stand before those who survived history’s darkest hour.”
He added that the survivors were witness to evil and what they saw was beyond description.
“Survivors in this hall through their testimony, have fulfilled the righteous duty to never forget and engrave into the world’s memory the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people,” said Trump.
Mr. Trump’s keynote address comes two weeks after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s comments regarding the Holocaust at a press briefing where he compared Adolf Hitler with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”
Spicer bungled a follow-up comment when he referred to concentration camps as “Holocaust centers.” Spicer has since apologized for the comments.
Mr. Trump’s remarks are part of the week-long Days of Remembrance of the U.S. commemoration of the Holocaust.
