VP Pence visits Nazi camp
WASHINGTON: US Vice-President Mike Pence paid a sombre visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany on Sunday, against the backdrop of concerns about a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since Donald Trump was elected president.
Mr Pence, his wife, Karen, and daughter, Charlotte, toured the camp where more than 200,000 political prisoners, Jews and others were incarcerated by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. More than 40,000 people died there.
Under grey skies, the Pences placed a wreath at a memorial in the centre of the camp and visited the barracks, a crematorium and a gas chamber.
“It was a miracle that we survived,” former Dachau prisoner Abba Naor told the vice-president and his family, describing a typical meal as “a slice of bread”.
Mr Pence signed a guestbook, ending his visit with an hour-long service at the Church of Reconciliation on the camp grounds.
“Moving and emotional tour of Dachau today,” he tweeted on his official Twitter account. “We can never forget atrocities against Jews and others in the Holocaust.”
The vice-president and other senior figures in the Trump administration are touring Europe to assure nervous allies of Washington’s “unwavering” support for Nato, as Mr Pence put it in a speech to an international security conference in Munich on Saturday.
But the stop in Dachau also had a US dimension to as it comes amid concerns over a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.
Nearly 60 bomb threats have been received by 48 Jewish centres nationwide, most of them leading up to Mr Trump’s inauguration in January, CNN reported. A proliferation of post-election incidents involving swastikas painted on school walls and other anti-Semitic symbols have raised concerns that white supremacists have been emboldened by Mr Trump’s win.