President Trump on Tuesday denounced those who deny the Holocaust and practice anti-Semitism as he marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, calling the Nazi genocide of European Jews “history’s darkest hour.”
“This is my pledge to you: we will confront anti-Semitism,” Mr. Trump said in a speech at a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum event hosted at the Capitol.
“Today we mourn, we remember, we pray and we pledge: Never again,” he said.
The president’s strong words and solemn tribute to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust belied his critics’ charges that he was responsible for increased anti-Semitism in the U.S.
He vowed the the “very, very solemn occasion” of remembering the systematic murder of 6 million Jews would also be a rededication to preventing future genocides.
He took aim at anti-Semitism in the U.S. and around the world, including from Iran and other Arab countries that threaten the destruction of Israel.
“Those who deny the Holocaust are an accomplice to this horrible evil,” Mr. Trump said. “We will never be silent, we just won’t. We will never be silent in the face of evil again.”
He also pledged that the U.S. will always stand with “our great friend and partner, the state of Israel.”
Mr. Trump encountered criticism over his statement in January in recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not specifically condemn the genocide of Jews.
In that statement, Mr. Trump spoke of “those who died” without mentioning Jews.
“It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror,” the statement read. “Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest. As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent.”
Mr. Trump also paid tribute Tuesday to the late Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and author who helped found U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
It was the first Remembrance Day event without Wiesel, who died July 2.
“His spirit fills this room,” Mr. Trump said, describing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as “an angel who lived though hell.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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