Story highlights Hier noted the decisions reached by the Nazi to deliberately kill the Jews at the Wannsee Conference in 1942

"When you make a statement, you must say the principle objective of Adolph Hitler was to do away with the Jews," he said

(CNN) The rabbi who offered a prayer at President Donald Trump's inauguration 10 days ago is criticizing the White House statement on International Holocaust Memorial Day that failed to mention Jews as a "mistake."

"I do not accuse President Trump of wanting to dishonor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust who were Jewish, but it was a mistake," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

Hier added that to remove Jews from mention in commemorations of the Holocaust, as is done by nationalist groups in the US and Eastern Europe seeking to minimize how much the Holocaust was specifically targeting the Jews of Europe for genocide, "is dangerous."

"The Final Solution was not planned against Gypsies. The Final Solution was not planned against homosexuals. It was not planned against any group other than Jews," he said, noting the decisions reached by the Nazi to deliberately kill the Jews at the Wannsee Conference in 1942. "Of course there were many victims who were non-Jews. But the principle objective of Adolf Hitler was to do away with Europe's Jews."

Despite White House press secretary Sean Spicer's claim that "by-and-large" the President has "been praised for the Friday statement commemorating the Holocaust, in point of fact the White House been criticized by Jewish groups on the right, left and center for merely lamenting the deaths, but not specifically mentioning Jews.

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