White House accused of anti-Semitism by Holocaust historian

A leading historian has accused Donald Trump of holocaust denial for his failure to mention Jews as the primary victims of the Holocaust.

Deborah Lipstadt, who famously exposed historian David Irving as a holocaust denier, said: "Holocaust denial is alive and well in the highest offices of the United States."

"It is being spread by those in President Trump's innermost circle," she said in the article in the Atlantic magazine.

Her comments were made in response to a White House statement released to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday, which has attracted controversy for failing to mention Jewish victims of the Nazis.

The statement said: "It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honour the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror."

Lipstadt said that the statement "did not mention Jews or anti-semitism" and that it "bemoaned the innocent victims". ...