Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, ripped into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the former Democratic vice presidential nominee compared the experiences of families in his state during federal law enforcement activity to Anne Frank hiding from the Nazis.

“Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust,” Kaploun wrote in response to Walz’s remarks. “Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law. She was hauled off to a death camp because of her race and religion. Her story has nothing to do with the illegal immigration, fraud and lawlessness plaguing Minnesota today.”

“Our brave law enforcement should be commended, not tarred with this historically illiterate and antisemitic comparison,” Kaploun added.

Walz made the comments at a Sunday press conference alongside Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, as tensions continue to rise over federal law enforcement operations in the state.

“We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz said. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s gonna write that children’s story about Minnesota.”

The governor’s remarks were intended to underscore widespread fear among immigrant communities during stepped-up federal enforcement. But the Anne Frank analogy immediately drew condemnation from Jewish leaders and administration officials, who said the comparison was historically inaccurate and inappropriate.

Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager, hid with her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam before being captured and deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died in 1945. Her diary has become one of the most enduring symbols of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution of Jews.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)