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 goldiner@forward.com, or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

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