What you need to know
The United States Holocaust Museum issued a statement in response to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz comparing the experience of Minnesota children to that of Holocaust victim Anne Frank.
Walz, 61, made the comparison at a press conference held on Sunday, Jan. 25, in the wake of the shooting death of ICU nurse Alex Preti by federal agents.
“There are children in Minnesota who are hiding inside their homes because they are afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading the story of Anne Frank,” Walz said toward the end of the press conference. “Someone will write a children’s story about Minnesota.”
Anne Frank died at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after spending two years in hiding as one of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
“Anne Frank was targeted and murdered simply because she was Jewish,” the museum said in a statement shared with X on Monday, Jan. 26. “We will never tolerate leaders who falsely equate Anne Frank’s experience for political purposes. Exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive despite tensions in Minneapolis, especially at a time of rising anti-Semitism.”
On Monday, January 26, President Trump said he spoke with Walz following the shooting deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Preti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. In a post on his Truth social account, President Trump called the conversation “a very good conversation.”
“I got a call from Governor Tim Walz asking me to work with him on the state of Minnesota. It was a very good call. In fact, we seemed to be on the same wavelength,” Trump wrote. “I told Governor Walz that I was going to have Tom Homan call me and that what we’re looking for is any and all criminals that they have in their possession. The governor respectfully understood that and I’m going to talk to him soon.”
As Minnesota increases the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, some school districts have offered to move students to online learning, The New York Times reported.
“Over the past few days, we have received hundreds of messages offering temporary virtual learning options to students who do not feel comfortable coming to school right now,” St. Paul’s Superintendent Stacey Stanley said in a video message, according to the Times.
Several neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to large immigrant populations. In St. Paul, Minnesota, about half of Spanish-speaking students and a quarter of Somali-speaking students were absent from school on Jan. 9, the Times reported, citing school district data.
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The district’s distance learning proposal also came while 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained in their driveway after returning home from their children’s preschool on Jan. 21, according to The Guardian, The Washington Post, and local news outlet Fox 9, which cited the Columbia Heights Public School District.
