US Holocaust Museum criticizes Walz's Anne Frank comparison

Zoë Jackson, Star Tribune on Jan 27, 2026

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Gov. Tim Walz is facing criticism from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for comparing the experience of Minnesota children living through the state’s chaotic federal immigration enforcement surge with that of Anne Frank’s experience hiding from Nazi Germans.

His comment came during a news conference Sunday following federal agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse.

“We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank,” he said. “Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”

Walz taught high school social studies before he became a politician.

On Monday, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum rebuked Walz’s comment on social media.

“Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable,” the museum said in a post on X. “Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”

The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year, is the board that oversees the museum. It consists of 55 members appointed by the president of the United States, as well as a handful of members from the Senate and the House of Representatives and three ex officio members from the departments of Education, Interior and State.

President Donald Trump fired several members of the board last year who had been appointed by former President Joe Biden, including former Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, who criticized Trump’s politicization of Holocaust remembrance, according to The New York Times.

Observers, protesters and Minneapolis residents have compared the frequent sightings of caravans of masked federal agents on city streets to that of Nazi police forces during the Holocaust. It’s a common refrain on signs at protests. Earlier this month, influential podcaster and Trump supporter Joe Rogan compared the federal agents to the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany.

A spokesperson for Walz said the governor’s comment “came from a place of concern for what’s happening in Minnesota.”

“As a social studies teacher, the governor taught his students about the Holocaust. The governor knows learning about and teaching that history is an important part of ensuring it never happens again,” the statement said.

A former Holocaust education program coordinator at the museum told MPR News earlier this month that some of the social media postings and messaging from the Department of Homeland Security seemed to follow “the Nazi playbook.”

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