Vice President JD Vance, his wife Usha Vance and Holocaust survivor Abba Naor at the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial on Feb. 13. Photo by Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh February 13, 2025

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that he was “very moved” after visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, describing it as a powerful reminder of the unspeakable atrocities committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

“I’ve read a lot about the Holocaust in books, but being here and seeing it up close in person really drives home what unspeakable evil was committed,” Vance told reporters after touring the memorial with his wife, Usha, and laying a wreath before a sculpture of emaciated bodies entangled in barbed wire. “And it’s very important that those of us who are lucky enough to be alive can walk around, can know what happened here and commit ourselves to prevent it from happening again,” Vance added.

Vance, 40, visited the site on his first international trip since assuming office and ahead of his attendance at the Munich Security Conference, an annual national security summit. He followed the tradition of his predecessors who visited Dachau, including former President Joe Biden, who traveled with his granddaughter in 2015 while serving as vice president, and former Vice President Mike Pence in 2017. Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial as part of a Jewish heritage tour in Poland in 2023.

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When Vance was tapped as Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024, he faced media scrutiny for referring to Trump as a potential “American Hitler” in 2016. Vance said during the vice presidential debate last October that he was wrong and misspoke about Trump. A venture capitalist before entering politics, Vance was also an investor in Rumble, a video platform that has amplified far-right antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Nick Fuentes, an avowed Holocaust denier, maintains an active page there featuring his live shows. Vance has disavowed Fuentes.

Vance was accompanied on the 30-minute tour on Thursday by Abba Naor, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who now lives in Israel. “You look better than I do, and I’m 40,” Vance told Naor as he greeted him in front of the gate bearing the words, “Arbeit macht frei,” translated as “Work sets one free.” Naor also accompanied Pence, Trump’s vice president in his first term.

According to the traveling pool, Naor told the vice president that he carries the memory of what happened to him every day. Vance laid a wreath at the base of a metal statue depicting Holocaust victims. Vance, who is Catholic, bowed his head and performed the sign of the cross. He then paused in front of a wall inscribed with “Never Again” in multiple languages, including Yiddish.

“It is something that I’ll never forget,” Vance said, “and I’m grateful to been able to see it up close in person.”

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