Vice President JD Vance toured Germany's Dachau concentration camp on Thursday, ahead of a Munich security conference and a meeting with Ukrainian President Voldy Mie Zelenskyset on Friday.
Vance and his wife, Second Lady Ushavance, toured the site that became a powerful symbol of the atrocities that Nazi Germany committed against Jews and other minority groups during World War II.
“What happened here should never happen again,” Vance told a group of senior officials near the entrance to the camp.
Vice President JD Vance will visit the Dachau concentration camp on February 13, 2025 after arriving in Bavaria to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by the US military on April 29, 1945. (Peter Kneffel/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
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“I read a lot in books,” he added. “But when you see it in person, and see it in person, it really drives you to the house for what an indescribable evil has been committed and why you should commit to ensuring it never happens again.”
The pair toured the site with 96-year-old Holocaust survivor Aba Naor, a Dachau prisoner, and laid out a wreath with red, white and blue ribbons at the base of the international monument. . It depicts a person entangled in barbed wire.
They then stopped in five different languages at a wall with “Never Again”. In front of the wall is a bone n with the ashes of an unknown prisoner.
Vice President J.D. V. D. V. V. V. D. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. (via Tobias Schwarz/AFP Getty Images)
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More 200,000 people have been detained in Dachau Between 1933 and 1945, experts believe that over 40,000 people were killed there.
Vance is the newest American official to visit this site. It toured as Vice President during the Obama administration and as Vice President Mike Pence during the First Trump administration, as well as President Joe Biden and Commander-in-Chief.
“I'm really really impressed with this site,” Vance said. “It's very important that it's here, and it's good to be lucky enough to walk around living and know what happened here and commit yourself to do everything so that it doesn't happen again. What you can do is very important.”
Vice President J.D. V. V. V. V. V. V. V. and his wife Usha Vance placed wreaths at the former Dachau concentration camp on February 13, 2025. (Peter Kneffel/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
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Vance's five-day trip to Europe will also include attendance at the Munich Security Conference, which begins on Friday.
There, he will meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, including Zelensky.
Vance and the Ukrainian president are expected to discuss President Donald Trump's plan to end the three-year war.
