Michael Hiltzik: The US Holocaust Museum is wrong to deny how Trump's racism resembles Nazism

The leaders of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington presumably thought they were standing up for truth and fairness when they issued a statement condemning attempts to draw analogies between the Holocaust and contemporary American politics - notably the Trump administration's immigration policies.

The museum "unequivocally rejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events, whether historical or contemporary," the statement read. It referred readers to a 2018 position paper lamenting that "the Holocaust has become shorthand for good vs. evil," which it called "sloppy analogizing." That statement specifically decried "accusations of 'Nazism' and 'fascism' against federal authorities for their treatment of children separated from their parents at the US border with Mexico."

Instead of putting the matter to rest, however, the museum's statements have only intensified the debate over Trump policies and the lessons of the Holocaust. An open letter calling on the museum to retract its most recent statement