Holocaust denier running in Minnesota school board election

A known Holocaust denier and antisemitic writer has submitted his candidacy for a school board election in Minnesota, US according to an expose from Newsweek published earlier this week.

The man, named Vaughn Klingenberg, is running for the Roseville Area Schools board.

Klingenberg appeared on a podcast in July 2023, in which he accused “big Zionist Jews" of plotting the Holocaust to undermine “little Jews”. 

The name was spotted on a list of candidates for the school board elections, having been submitted on August 14.

The election will see six new representatives on the board and allow those elected to oversee the education of close to 9,000 school-aged children.

The school board was quick to distance themselves from the candidate.

"Roseville Area Schools strongly rejects any language or stance that denies the truth of the Holocaust and its devastating impact not only for Jewish people but our world," Roseville Area Schools Superintendent Dr. Jenny Loeck told Newsweek. "We stand for truth, human rights, and human dignity."

According to his podcast appearance, Klingenberg sees himself as helping to enlighten Jews. He sees self-described ‘Holocaust truthers’ as “doing the Jews a favor” by supplying them with the relevant “facts” concerning the genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany.

Not up for debate

The historicity of the Holocaust has been well documented and is described the the US National WWII Museum as the "deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and machine-like murder of approximately six million European Jews and at least five million Soviet prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and other victims."

Such attempts to see Holocaust denial infiltrate the US education system come after 2021 saw the highest-ever number of recorded antisemitic incidents and a further rise of 35% last year.