On This Holocaust Remembrance Day, Walz Sullies Memory of Anne Frank

On This Holocaust Remembrance Day, Walz Sullies Memory of Anne Frank
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
January 26, 2026

The easiest way to lose both credibility and the argument is to weaponize the Holocaust. President Donald J. Trump is not Hitler. Is President Trump responsible for the slaughter of six million Jewish men, women, and children simply because they were Jewish? Of course not. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents are not the Gestapo. ICE is not a secret police unit rounding up legal citizens for eventual murder. ICE is responsible for apprehending criminal illegal aliens.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), in an effort to fight the Trump administration has made those very parallels between Trump and Hitler, and between ICE and the Gestapo. On Sunday, January 25, just two days prior to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Walz went one step farther by weaponizing and denigrating the memory of Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager in hiding with seven other people for more than two years in Amsterdam. Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, is so recognized as the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops.

In his abject ignorance Walz said “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. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota,” Walz moronically concluded during his press conference on Sunday.

Based upon his comments, one may wonder whether Walz ever read The Diary of a Young Girl. In the first place, the Anne Frank diary should not be classified as a “children’s story” when it is a mature-themed accounting of life in hiding from the Nazis who were hell-bent on rounding up every Jew to be murdered. Children hiding in Minneapolis are doing so because of the fear-mongering of Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Are the children Walz compared to Frank on the precipice of being murdered? No, they are not. Is their plight remotely as desperate or severe as that of Frank? No, it is not. 

Anne Frank, born June 12, 1929, her sister Margot, born February 16, 1926, their parents Otto and Edith, and four others went into hiding on July 6, 1942 in an attic of an annex to Otto’s business office. Their survival, incumbent upon the goodness and bravery of a precious few willing to risk their own lives for helping Jews, included Miep and Jan Gies. Until the Franks, et al, were betrayed and turned into the Nazis on August 4, 1944 they lived, if it can be called living, knowing any sound could be their end. Upon their capture, they were sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp where nearly 1.5 million people were slaughtered - 90 percent of them Jewish - gas chambers operating at a capacity of 12,ooo murders per day. Does anyone think Walz knows this history?

Eventually Anne and Margot Frank were transferred to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp established in 1943 designed to hold 10,000 prisoners/hostages. By the end of World War II Bergen-Belsen housed about 60,000 prisoners/hostages, the overwhelming majority of whom, murdered by the Nazis, died of starvation and/or typhus. British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen April 15, 1945 - too late for the Frank sisters, both of whom died of typhus. Their exact dates of death are not known, but are estimated to be in February or March of 1945, Anne at age 15, and Margot either at age 18 or 19. May their memories be for a blessing. 

It’s beyond outrageous that Walz, or anyone for that matter, could have the chutzpah to malign the memory of Anne Frank, or any of the eight hidden in the attic for more than two years. Comparing that horrific experience to that which some children in Minnesota are going through - protected by the state and local governments, is an insult to the memories of not just Anne and Margot Frank, but that of the 1.5 million children slaughtered by the Nazis.

Otto Frank, the lone survivor of the eight hidden in the attic/annex, lived to see age 90 - from May 12, 1889 to August 19, 1980. Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, honored Miep Gies and her husband Jan on March 8, 1972 as Righteous Among the Nations. Jan lived from August 18, 1905 to January 26, 1993, while Miep reached 100 - living February 15, 1909 to January 11, 2010. May their memories be for a blessing.

Less than 24 hours after Walz’s insolent and ignorant statements, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum fired off a response. “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”

Walz and Frey are still lead instigators against ICE being in Minnesota doing their job of capturing criminal illegals. Don’t forget, by their mere presence in the United States illegally, they have committed a crime. People in this country without permission have no legal right to be here, nor should they be given anything to encourage them to stay or encourage others to follow suit in crossing the border illegally. A country without borders and an immigration policy can no longer be a sovereign nation. 

Walz and Frey have used terribly incendiary language, turning up the heat to prompt the thousands of protesters in Minneapolis and St. Paul to engage with ICE both verbally and physically. The protesters, many of whom are breaking laws via their non-peaceful protests, are foolishly defending and attempting to protect murderers, rapists, child abusers and traffickers illegally in the United States, mostly because Trump sent ICE there, and thus, they, the protesters, believe they are on the side of right as a juxtaposition to Trump. They are not.

The non-peaceful protesters, such as those who invaded Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday January 18 (see separate column), and the illegal aliens are all subject to local, state, and federal laws. That Frey and Walz continue to grant them safe harbor, as well as the more than $9 billion in fraud under investigation by the federal government, should be cause enough for both so-called leaders to demonstrate their leadership by resigning from office forthwith. 

Walz and Frey are a major part of the problem that requires ICE to be in Minnesota in the first place. Honest, law abiding citizens of Minnesota, and all 50 of the United States have the right to live freely and safely, in fraud free communities, with the ability to attend church and synagogue unimpeded by atheist, Marxist mobs who believe their rights supersede everyone else's. How wrong those mobs are.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He is also a charter member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington, DC.