U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday condemned the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust, in a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Tomorrow marks the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death and concentration camp in Poland. We take this opportunity to recall the Nazis’ systematic persecution and brutal murder of six million Jewish people. In their death camps and under their inhuman rule, the Nazis also enslaved and killed millions of Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, priests and religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their brutal regime,” said Trump.
“Our Nation is indebted to the Holocaust’s survivors. Despite the trauma they carry with them, they continue to educate us by sharing their experiences, strength, wisdom, and generosity of spirit to advance respect for human rights. Although they are aging and their numbers are slowly dwindling, their stories remain with us, giving us the strength to combat intolerance, including anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry and discrimination,” he continued.
“Every generation must learn and apply the lessons of the Holocaust to prevent new horrors against humanity from occurring. As I have said: 'We will stamp out prejudice. We will condemn hatred. We will bear witness, and we will act.'”
“In this spirit, we must join together across our nations and with people of goodwill around the world to eliminate prejudice and promote more just societies. We must remain vigilant to protect the fundamental rights and inherent dignity of every human being,” the president said.
“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we acknowledge this dark stain on human history and vow to never let it happen again,” Trump's statement concluded.
Trump's statement stands in stark contrast to his statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day last year, which failed to specifically mention the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
That statement came under fire Jewish organizations in the United States, including ones affiliated with the Republican party.
The White House press secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, dismissed the criticism of the statement as “ridiculous”, noting Trump had “recognized the tremendous loss of life that came from the Holocaust.”
Democratic lawmakers subsequently attempted to pass a resolution slamming the White House for its statement, but that move was blocked by the Republicans.
Meanwhile in Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was criticized on Thursday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for failing to include a reference to Jews and anti-Semitism in his statement on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
After Corbyn shared on Facebook the message he had written in the Holocaust Educational Trust memorial book and which only generally spoke of “the millions who died, the millions displaced and cruel hurt their descendants have suffered,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “To omit any reference to Jews or anti-Semitism in your Holocaust remembrance statement is offensive to us and the millions murdered. Nazi ideology was rooted in hate & anti-Semitism. We can never forget that.”
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)