Thread by @jaketapper

From @jmhansler:

At the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance event, @SecBlinken delivered lengthy remarks highlighting the State Department’s complicity in the genocide and also addressed the current rise in antisemitism.

1/

2/ Blinken: “We remember not only what happened, but also how it was allowed to happen. We remember to look at the institutions and societies we’re part of and to understand better what they did and what they did not do...

3/ “...We must never forget the way individuals can make entire systems, from top to bottom, tilt toward the inhumane, how the sanitized language of cables, briefings and regulations can be used to turn away people we should be helping...

4/ "...And we must not forget that individuals, armed with the truth in their convictions, can use those same mechanisms to save lives,” he said.

Blinken, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor, focused much of his speech on WWII-era assistant Sec of State Breckinridge Long.

5/ Long “oversaw immigration and refugee policy for countries impacted by the war, including the issuance of visas. He had immense power to help those being persecuted...

6/ "...yet as the Nazis began to systematically round up and execute Jews, Long made it harder and harder for Jews to be granted refuge in the United States. He established onerous security checks...

7/ "...claiming they were necessary to prevent enemy spies from infiltrating the United States even though there were, there was no evidence that refugees posed that risk.

"Long didn't hide what he was doing. He wrote it up in official cables.“

8/ “Assistant Secretary Long did still worse. He blocked cables with reports of the mass killing, which would have increased pressure for America to take in more Jews. He lied to Congress...

9/"...He told them the State Department was doing everything in its power to rescue Jews from Europe, and that the United States that admitted 580,000 Jewish refugees when in fact we'd only taken in around 138,000 Jews..."

10/ "...“Now, it's important to note that Mr. Long did not act alone,” Blinken continued. “Others at the State Department helped him draft and implement his policies. Still others sat silently while Long created more restrictions, more delays.”

11/ "...“But some did push back,” Blinken said, including a group of Treasury officials who came up with payments to evacuate Jews in Romania and France and drafted an appeal to the President laying out “in devastating detail the State Department's refusal to help Jews.”

12/ Blinken noted that “we live in a time where antisemitism is on the rise again in America and around the world.”

“And as always, hatred of the Jews tends to go hand in hand with hatred of others, including LGBTQ, people of color, people with disabilities, refugees...

13/ "...When hateful ideology rises, violence is never far behind as recent attacks on Asian-Americans have illustrated,” he said. “A few weeks ago, the Director of National Intelligence issued a report that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists present...

14/"... the most lethal threat of domestic violent extremism in America today. It's no surprise that many of these extremists deny the Holocaust,” he noted. “These things are connected. So we must stay vigilant.”