US vice-president criticised for ‘neutral’ Holocaust message that fails to name Jews 

US Vice President J.D. Vance has come under heavy criticism after issuing a statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day without mentioning Jews as the primary victims of the Holocaust or identifying the Nazis as its perpetrators.

In the statement, released on 27 January, Vance said: “Today we remember the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust, millions of worlds and stories of heroism and humanity… we are committed to ensuring that it never happens again.”

Critics argued that the wording was overly general and appeared to erase the specifically Jewish character of the Holocaust, during which around six million Jews were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany. They said the statement referred broadly to victims without explicitly identifying Jews as the main target group.

The remarks also revived debate about Vance’s past political associations, including links to figures such as media host Tucker Carlson, who has been criticised for giving airtime to guests accused of denying or downplaying the Holocaust.

Some commentators contrasted what they described as Vance’s silence on Jewish suffering with his harsher rhetoric in other contexts, including references to “crimes against white people”, prompting accusations of anti-Semitism or of deliberately minimising Jewish persecution.

Vance’s office has not issued an explanation for why the statement did not explicitly mention Jews or Nazi perpetrators.