Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, describing fear and disorder tied to federal immigration enforcement and street-level unrest, reached for a loaded analogy. “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.” The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum responded on X in the register of moral correction, declaring, “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish,” and warning, “Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable,” adding, “Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”

That exchange is useful mainly as a diagnostic. An institution scolding others for “politicizing” Holocaust memory is a reasonable starting point for asking who, precisely, controls that institution’s megaphone, and what those controllers do with it. In the USHMM’s case, the answer points straight to a governing structure explicitly filtered through U.S. presidential politics, and to board members whose public record includes open endorsement of genocidal logic toward Palestinians in Gaza.

Read more: ‘Don’t Politicize the Holocaust’ Says Pro-Genocide Board