"His statements imply a profound lack of knowledge of events of the Second World War, including the Holocaust", the Jerusalem-based memorial center said, while also expressing its "deep concern regarding the inaccurate and insensitive use of terms related to the Holocaust by the White House Press Secretary".
Spicer responded: "He brought them into the Holocaust centers - I understand that".
You know when you're watching a bad horror movie there's always this one idiot character who's walking along some dark hallway toward a room with a banner that says "you will die here", and you're screaming at the TV like, "DON'T GO IN THERE DON'T DO IT AH GOD WHY OH GOD STOP IT OH YOU'RE SO DUMB WHY?" The comment drew an instant rebuke from critics, who noted the remark ignored Hitler's use of gas chambers to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.
Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday that Spicer's comment "only shows what is in any case the German government's position - any comparison of current situations with Nazi crimes leads to nothing good".
But the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, an organization named after the young Holocaust victim, isn't buying it.
After the daily press briefing concluded, the White House issued a series of three different statements from Spicer, each meant to replace the last. He said in a brief statement that he was not trying to "lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust".
"On a professional level it's disappointing because I think I've let the president down", Spicer said in a conversation at the Newseum.
Pence visits Korean Demilitarized Zone
More directly on North Korea, the president returned to a theme of placing much onus on China for reining in the North. A New York Times story in March reported on a U.S.operation created to disrupt North Korea's nuclear missile program.
'I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. "Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable", Spicer said in the statement.
Comparing the Nazi leader to Assad, Spicer said: "We didn't use chemical weapons in World War Two".
U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Republican President Donald Trump to reject Spicer's assertion.
A reporter yelled out that the Jews had been gassed.
He was accused of being insensitive to Jews and Holocaust survivors, in a week when many will celebrate the festival of Passover.
In an exchange with reporters on Monday, Spicer appeared to draw a new red line for the Trump administration when he told reporters that if a country gases a baby or it puts "a barrel bomb into innocent people, I think you will see a response from this president". A White House spokesman said later that "nothing has changed in our posture" and the president retains the option to act if it's in the national interest. Spicer had yesterday during his regular press briefing attempted to shame Russian Federation and Assad by comparing the Syrian leader with Hitler.
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