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Election 2023
Elizabeth Shockman

Holocaust denier running for school board in Roseville

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One of the candidates running for the Roseville, Minn., school board this fall is a Holocaust denier.

Vaughn Klingenberg is one of seven people who have filed to run for one of three open seats in the Twin Cities suburban school district. He registered to run Aug. 14, according to a filing posted on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.

Klingenberg has written a book denying the genocide of 6 million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. On his website, he calls the Holocaust “a fraud.”

Klingenberg did not return requests for comment, but the home address on his candidate filing is the same address listed for him on a site promoting his book.

Roseville district leaders pushed back against Klingenberg’s stated beliefs. 

“Roseville Area Schools strongly rejects any language or stance that denies the truth of the Holocaust and its devastating impact not only Jewish people but our world. We stand for truth, human rights and human dignity,” Jenny Loeck, the district superintendent, said in a statement.

She added: “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said it best: ‘The denial or distortion of history is an assault on truth and understanding. … Comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand ourselves, our society and our goals for the future.’”

The Holocaust Memorial Museum describes the methodical killing of Jews by the Nazis as the world’s “best documented case of genocide. During the trials held in Nuremberg after the war, Allied prosecutors submitted thousands of German documents proving that the Nazi regime had carried out the systematic persecution and destruction of the Jewish people. This evidence included numerous photographs and films created by Nazi Germans. It also included eyewitness accounts by survivors and perpetrators.”

The museum says “Holocaust denial and minimization or distortion of the facts of the Holocaust is a form of antisemitism.”

Newsweek reported on Monday that Klingenberg was running for Roseville school board.

Klingenberg’s candidacy is a reminder that the public should be aware of the beliefs and values of candidates seeking to govern local schools, said Kirk Schneidawind, executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association.

“That is so important today because of the value of, importance of, our public schools in the lives of our kids, our families and our communities,” Schneidawind said.