By Michael Hernandez and Canberk Yuksel
WASHINGTON (AA) - In marking the annual remembrance of more than 6 million Jews killed at the hands of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime, President Donald Trump made reference solely to "innocent victims", breaking with precedent.
"It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror," Trump said in a statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Former presidents, regardless of party, have made mention of the victims' identity and have used the occasion to lambast anti-Semitism. Last year, former President Barack Obama mentioned Jews by name four times.
The White House did not respond to a request from Anadolu Agency for comment.
Trump's statement was met with consternation by the U.S.'s largest Jewish advocacy group.
"@WhiteHouse statement on #HolocaustMemorialDay, misses that it was six million Jews who perished, not just 'innocent people' ," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on Twitter, calling the development "puzzling and troubling".
Meanwhile, the UN's statement on the somber occasion mentioned Jews by name 18 times.
“The world has a duty to remember that the Holocaust was a systematic attempt to eliminate the Jewish people and so many others,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Guterres said Portugal, his country of origin, had a turbulent history in the way it treated Jews.
The government of King Manuel in the 16th century expelled the Jewish population, in what he described as a “hideous crime” and an “enormous act of stupidity”.
The secretary general said that although history keeps moving forward, anti-Semitism keeps coming back.
“Anti-Semitism is alive and kicking. Irrationality and intolerance are back,” Guterres said.
“Today, we see anti-Semitism, along with racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred and other forms of intolerance, triggered by populism, he said. “I find the stereotyping of Muslims deeply troubling. A “new normal” of public discourse is taking hold, in which prejudice is given a free pass and the door is opened to even more extreme hatred.”