Vance visits Dachau concentration camp, lays wreath saying: ‘We remember’
The tour comes before the vice president is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky
Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images
Vice President J. D. Vance (r) visits the former Dachau concentration camp after his arrival in Bavaria to commemorate the victims and survivors of the Nazi terror regime and the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation by American forces on April 29, 1945. On the left is Karl Freller, Director of the Bavarian Memorials Foundation.
Vice President J.D. Vance toured the Dachau concentration camp memorial in Germany on Thursday afternoon.
Vance, accompanied by his wife, Usha, toured with a group that included Abba Naor, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor, and Karl Freller, the director of the Bavaria Memorial Foundation.
“I’ve read a lot about the Holocaust in books, but being here and seeing it up close in person really drives home what unspeakable evil … was committed, and why we should be committed to ensuring that it never happens again,” Vance told the group in brief remarks.
“It’s a somber moment, it’s a sad moment, but it’s something that I’ll never forget, and I’m grateful to have been able to see it up close in person,” he said.
Naor showed Vance a card with prisoner information and said, “I’m still here.”
“Well, we’re very lucky you’re here,” Vance responded, and quipped, “You look better than I do, and I’m 40.”
Vance laid a wreath with a red, white and blue ribbon with the words “We remember” and “United States of America” in gold lettering at the site’s International Monument.
The visit — which is part of Vance’s first overseas trip as vice president — came ahead of the annual Munich Security Conference, which begins Friday. Alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vance is expected to meet on the conference sidelines with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss President Donald Trump’s plans to end the three-year Russia-Ukraine war.
Vance wrote on X that his five-day Europe trip — which also included meetings in France — will push Trump’s “agenda when it comes to technology and artificial intelligence.”
Vance is the latest in a string of American political officials to visit Dachau, one of the first concentration camps built by the Nazis. Joe Biden visited with his granddaughter in 2015 as vice president. Vice President Mike Pence went in 2017. In 2023, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff took part in a Jewish heritage tour of Poland.