White House ignored Jewish draft Holocaust Day statement

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Donald Trump's Holocaust Day statement excluded reference to murdered Jews
An earlier draft of the three paragraph statement mentioned the Jewish deaths
Reince Priebus denied the president was trying to 'whitewash history'
Far right extremists including former KKK chief David Duke praised the omission

Published: 09:16 EST, 3 February 2017 | Updated: 09:29 EST, 3 February 2017

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Donald Trump ignored a draft statement for Holocaust Day which explicitly mentioned the mass murder of six million Jews in Nazi death camps insisting instead on 'an inclusive statement'.

The failure to mention Jewish suffering on International Holocaust Remembrance Day drew widespread criticism although was praised by far-right websites and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Following Trump's statement, Secretary of State Reince Priebus defended the three paragraph message claiming the president was 'not whitewashing anything' and 'everyone's heart is impacted here by that terrible time'.

Donald Trump released a three paragraph statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day which failed to mention the six million Jewish people murdered by Nazis

The statement instead refers to the 'depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people'

Trump's director of strategic communications Hope Hicks, pictured, defended the message describing the president's White House team as 'an incredibly inclusive group'

The existence of the draft statement was revealed by Politico, who claimed the State Department's Office of the Special Envoy on Holocaust Issues prepared a more traditional version mentioning the murdered Jews.

Hope Hicks, Trump's spokeswoman told CNN 'we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all those who suffered'.

Priebus told NBC: 'Everyone's suffering in the Holocaust, including obviously all of the Jewish people affected and the miserable genocide that occurred is something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad and something that can never be forgotten.'

Jewish organizations insist it is vital that their religion is explicitly mentioned when discussing Nazi genocide as failure to do so encourages holocaust deniers.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia says a Holocaust remembrance must acknowledge the slaughter of Jews, otherwise it becomes 'Holocaust denial'.