Press Release

ADL Calls on White House to Rescind Appointment of Darren Beattie to U.S. Heritage Commission

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New York, NY, November 18, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today called on the Trump Administration to immediately rescind the appointment of Darren Beattie as a member of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent agency of the U.S. government established in 1985 to identify and report on cemeteries, monuments and historic buildings in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Holocaust killing sites. Beattie once attended a meeting with white supremacists.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), issued the following statement:

It is downright shocking that the White House has appointed Darren Beattie, who once attended an event with white supremacists and participated in a panel discussion with white nationalist Peter Brimelow, to serve as a member of a commission specifically created to help preserve the memory of Jewish victims of Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust.

Beattie spoke at a conference of the racist and extremist H.L. Mencken Club, where he participated in a discussion with Brimelow, the creator of the racist and anti-immigrant website VDare. As we have said before, there is no place in any presidential administration or government commission for an individual who would attend and participate in such well-known racist events. 

It is absolutely outrageous that someone who has consorted with racists would even be considered for a position on a commission devoted to preserving Holocaust memorials in Europe. We urge the administration to rescind his appointment immediately.