Trump Remembers To Mention Jewish People On Holocaust Remembrance Day, A Year After He Forgot

Global leaders, including President Donald Trump, commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday, and this time the president remembered to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people killed, unlike last year, after he received international backlash.

In a statement Friday, the president said the U.S. "is indebted to the Holocaust's survivors" and made sure to not only list the six million Jewish people killed but the countless Slavs, Roma, gays and people with disabilities who died at the hands of Nazis.

"Tomorrow marks the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death and concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland," he said. "We take this opportunity to recall the Nazis' systematic persecution and brutal murder of six million Jewish people. In their death camps and under their inhuman rule, the Nazis also enslaved and killed millions of Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, priests and religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their brutal regime."

First lady Melania Trump visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Thursday while her husband was away at the global economic summit in Davos.

She tweeted that she was moved by the museum tour. On Saturday, she took to Twitter again to send a message honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"We recognize International #HolocaustRemembranceDay so that #WeRemember all the innocent men, women, and children lost," she said. "May we continue to educate our children on one of history's most devastating events and always #AskWhy."

During the first month of his presidency, the president ignited a firestorm by failing to mention the Jewish people in his statement to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day—only citing "the innocent" in his comments.

"Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest.‎ As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent," he said.

At the time, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called Trump's remark "puzzling and troubling."

"White House statement on #HolocaustMemorialDay, misses that it was six million Jews who perished, not just 'innocent people,'" he tweeted.

It was not the first time the ADL has called out the president. The organization against anti-Semitism fired back at the president for failing to immediately denounce the white supremacists and anti-Semites at the violent rally in Charlottesville.

Last February, the group called on the Trump administration to speak out against attacks on Jewish centers and threats to the Jewish community.

Greenblatt criticized British politician Jeremy Corbyn for failing to acknowledge the Jewish people in his message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"To omit any reference to Jews or #antiSemitism in your Holocaust remembrance statement is offensive to us and the millions murdered," Greenblatt tweeted. "Nazi ideology was rooted in hate & #antiSemitism."

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