DeLauro Denounces Exclusion of Jewish Victims in White House Statement on Holocaust
WASHINGTON, DC (January 30, 2017) — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today wrote to President Trump regarding the White House's statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the decision to exclude Jewish victims in its statement. DeLauro stressed in her letter that we must be clear about the specific anti-Semitic hatred and mass murder that occurred, and that the suffering of the Jewish people in the Holocaust cannot be minimized.
"On Friday, the White House issued a brief statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, following a tradition set by prior Presidents on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Where the statement diverged from precedent, however, was in its glaring omission of recognizing the genocide of the Jewish people," wrote DeLauro. "By its very definition, the Holocaust was a systematic, calculated and horrific mass murder of six million Jews by the anti-Semitic Nazi state and its sympathizers across Europe.
"By Saturday, White House spokesman Hope Hicks clarified through the press that Jews were omitted from the statement because others also suffered at the hands of the Nazis. This disturbing doubling down on your decision to omit the primary targets of the racist horrors of Nazi Germany is not only disingenuous, I fear that it further divorces truth from a set of White House-driven ‘alternative facts,'" continued DeLauro. "You are now our President—our country looks to you for leadership, and the world is watching, Language matters—as does the absence of language. I urge you to use your platform to represent all Americans—not to reopen the wounds of unspeakable violence and pain."
DeLauro noted in her letter that discrimination and hatred towards the Jewish community continues to be a major concern, including when earlier this month, dozens of Jewish Community Centers across the country received bomb threats. In Connecticut, several Jewish Community Centers were evacuated after a threatening call was made to the Jewish Community Center in Woodbridge.
The full letter is available here.