Deborah Lipstadt Suggests Trump Denies Holocaust for Leaving Jews Out of Remembrance Statement

Image by Bleecker Street

By Dave Goldiner February 5, 2017

Deborah Lipstadt has suggested President Trump is guilty of denying the Holocaust for the now infamous statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day that omitted specific mention of Jewish victims.

The famed Jewish historian said the White House statement, which Trump advisers repeatedly defended, was as nefarious as more clear-cut forms of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.

“There are hardcore Holocaust deniers – who are easy to fight, using facts,” said Lipstadt, speaking at a conference in Britain of Limmud FSU, an organization serving Jews from the former Soviet Union.

She called Trump’s statement “soft-core Holocaust denial,” expanding on her denounciation of the statement in an opinion piece in The Atlantic

“Take, for example, the recent White House statement that failed to recognize Jewish victims of the Holocaust,” she said. “These sorts of attempts to be ‘inclusive,’ … take the Jewish identity away from the Holocaust. This is a form of Holocaust denial.”

Lipstadt, a professor at Emory University, gained recognition far beyond the ivory tower due to her story being told in the Hollywood film “Denial.”

Dave Goldiner is the Forward’s director of digital media. Dave is a veteran journalist who has spent two decades working at newspapers in the United States and Africa. A native New Yorker, Goldiner wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the attacks of September 11, along with thousands of stories of hope and heartbreak. He also studied and worked in Southern Africa and has written for publications in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He holds masters degrees in journalism and public administration from Columbia University. Dave can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO