{"id":27572,"date":"2026-01-29T06:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=27572"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:39:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T05:39:02","slug":"jd-vance-holocaust-gedenken-ohne-taeter-und-opfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/jd-vance-holocaust-gedenken-ohne-taeter-und-opfer\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance: Holocaust remembrance without perpetrators and victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Shapiro is governor of the US state of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, former attorney general, and one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the country. He is considered legally precise, politically controlled, and restrained in his choice of words. When Shapiro formulates criticism sharply in public, it is not out of impulse, but after deliberation. That is precisely why his criticism of JD Vance carries weight. Josh Shapiro does not criticize JD Vance for laying a wreath or speaking publicly on January 27. His criticism is directed at something else: the decision to omit central historical facts. The omission of what is not arbitrary on that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JD Vance appeared visibly disinterested, the appearance was strikingly brief<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In Vance\u2019s speech, neither Jews appeared, nor the number of six million murdered, nor the perpetrators. Hitler and the National Socialists were not named. Instead, Vance spoke in general terms of millions of lives lost, of a dark chapter in history, and of unspeakable brutality. Words that sound correct, but avoid the historical core. For Shapiro, this deliberate omission is no coincidence. Especially on Holocaust Remembrance Day, there is a clear expectation: it is named who was murdered, by whom, and for what ideological reasons. When this clarity is avoided, remembrance loses its sharpness and its historical reference. It becomes abstract. And abstraction is never neutral in connection with the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro\u2019s assessment is based on Vance\u2019s political context. He explicitly points out that Vance has repeatedly shown sympathy for the AfD, a party in which the relativization of National Socialist crimes, revisionist language, and antisemitic codes are not an exception. Anyone who openly supports or downplays such a party is subject to particular scrutiny when it comes to politics of remembrance. Added to this is Vance\u2019s proximity to right-wing milieus in the United States in which antisemitic portrayals are spread openly or implicitly. Shapiro says that Vance has given these forces backing. Against this background, a speech that leaves perpetrators and Jewish victims unnamed does not appear conciliatory, but designed toward historical vagueness.<\/strong>en offen oder unterschwellig verbreitet werden. Shapiro spricht davon, dass Vance diesen Kr\u00e4ften R\u00fcckhalt gegeben habe. Vor diesem Hintergrund wirkt eine Rede, die T\u00e4ter und j\u00fcdische Opfer unbenannt l\u00e4sst, nicht vers\u00f6hnlich, auf historische Unsch\u00e4rfe angelegt.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wreath alone does not change that. Symbolic gestures do not replace language. Especially from a vice president of the United States, there is an expectation that historical responsibility is not avoided, but articulated. Not in general terms, but concretely. Shapiro does not object to the act of remembrance, but to the deliberate avoidance of clearly naming perpetrators and Jewish victims. Remembrance that names no one obligates no one. Remembrance that clearly names perpetrators and victims does. That this clarity was missing on such a day is, for him, not a formal error, but a political statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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