Progressive news outlet NowThis announced in a tweet that it removed a video clip of a George Washington University student saying Anne Frank “didn’t die in a concentration camp” and claimed that the student “misspoke.”
The January 14th video in question featured three Jewish and Palestinian students criticizing President Donald Trump’s executive order addressing antisemitism on college campuses; the students argued that the executive order is attempting to curb pro-Palestinian voices on college campuses.
One of the students, identified as Becca Lewis, said in the video, “What’s going to happen if there’s another Holocaust? Well, we’re seeing what’s happening. We’re seeing people die at the border for lack of medical care. That’s how Anne Frank died. She didn’t die in a concentration camp, she died from typhus.”
Lewis claims in the video she is Jewish; her remarks on Anne Frank sparked outrage on Social Media.
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper stated that Anne Frank and her sister died of typhus “because the conditions in this concentration camp [Bergen-Belsen] were beyond description – the filth, the lack of sanitation, the lack of any food.”
He added that Lewis’ remarks are “an outrage.”
After the backlash, on Jan. 16, NowThis tweeted, “CORRECTION: We have removed a segment of this video in which the speaker misspoke regarding Anne Frank’s death.”
A Twitter account claiming to be Lewis tweeted, “The point I was making is that she died of typhus BECAUSE she was in a concentration camp. I meant to say she didnt [sic] die in a gas chamber — the way many people think was the only way jews [sic] were killed.” Lewis confirmed to the Journal that the account is hers.
The video was produced by Zahra Haider, a rabid supporter of the antisemitic BDS group. In 2014, Haider was photographed participating in a rally supporting convicted terrorist Rasmeah Odeh. Odeh was stripped of her U.S. Citizenship and kicked out of the country for lying about her terrorism charges/conviction on immigration papers.
