The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stepped into the political crossfire this week, issuing a rare and pointed rebuke of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after he invoked Nazi imagery to describe federal immigration enforcement and suggested that the next “Anne Frank” could be a child in Minnesota fearing deportation.
When an institution dedicated to preserving the memory of one of history’s greatest atrocities feels compelled to intervene, it’s a signal that something has gone badly off the rails.
The museum’s response, posted on its official X account, was measured but unmistakably firm. While acknowledging the tension and emotion surrounding recent events in Minnesota, it rejected Walz’s analogy outright. Anne Frank, the museum reminded the public, was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish.
To appropriate her story for modern political messaging, it said, is “never acceptable.” The statement went further, warning that exploiting the Holocaust in this way is “deeply offensive,” particularly at a time when antisemitism is once again surging across the United States and Europe.
Walz’s remarks came during a press conference following a fatal shooting involving Border Patrol agents, a moment already fraught with public anger and uncertainty. He told reporters that children in Minnesota were hiding in their homes, afraid to go outside, and likened the situation to the story of Anne Frank.
It was not the first time he had reached for such language. Walz has previously referred to federal immigration officials as “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo,” a comparison that has drawn criticism from law enforcement and historians alike.
What makes this episode notable is that Walz is far from alone. Democratic leaders across the country have increasingly adopted rhetoric that casts federal agents as secret police or authoritarian enforcers. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill compared ICE to the East German Stasi during a CNN appearance.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, speaking from the elite setting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, accused Border Patrol leadership of resembling the SS and operating a “private army.” These are not fringe activists speaking at protests; they are sitting governors, using the language of totalitarianism to describe American law enforcement.
The concern from law enforcement officials is not abstract. Leaders within the Trump administration argue that this kind of rhetoric has real-world consequences, pointing to a sharp rise in assaults and death threats against federal officers and their families. When officials repeatedly frame agents as Nazis or secret police, they risk legitimizing hostility and violence against people carrying out lawful duties.
