Rep. George Santos (R-NY) delivered a House floor speech on Friday, marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day — weeks after admitting he had falsely claimed to have Jewish ancestors.
Santos, who called himself a “proud American Jew” on the 2022 campaign trail, also previously stated that his mother was Jewish and that his maternal grandparents fled Nazi persecution in Europe — all claims that later proved false.
“Today I rise to acknowledge that the 27th of January marks the anniversary of the Auschwitz concentration camp being liberated by the Red Army in 1945,” Santos began his second address on the House floor since being sworn in earlier this month. “Let this day serve as a reminder that we must honor the victims and survivors. We must also pay tribute to the liberators who rescued millions of people who nearly fell victim to the Holocaust.”
Though the disgraced Long Island congressman did not mention his false statements about his background, he did claim that the grandmother of one of his staffers “is a 93-year-old survivor of Auschwitz, and is also one of the few survivors of her family who was tragically lost at the hands of Nazi murderers.”
When contacted by The Post, a Santos rep declined to provide any additional information backing up the claim.
“The staffer would prefer not to be named and asks that their privacy be respected,” the spokesperson said.
“Anti-semitism is a plague in this nation, and it is undoubtedly up to us to ensure this kind of tragedy is never to be seen again,” Santos concluded his one-minute speech. “This is a tribute to aging survivors in the Jewish community. We must guarantee access to the services they need to live long and dignified lives. This day, and every day, we give credence to the dark side of humanity, but strive for a better, brighter future.”
A month after Santos won his race to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District on Nov. 8, the Forward, a Jewish news outlet, reported that his maternal grandparents had been born in Brazil, not Ukraine as Santos had previously claimed on the campaign trail.
Santos told The Post on Dec. 26 that he was “clearly Catholic” and falsely stated that he had “never claimed to be Jewish.”
“Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was ‘Jew-ish,’” he added at the time.
The Republican Jewish Coalition denounced Santos following his interview with The Post, saying he “will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”
“We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos. He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage,” the RJC said. “In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish. He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note.”
Santos honored Holocaust victims one day after he was accused of making tasteless jokes on Facebook more than a decade ago about Adolf Hitler and “the Jews and blacks.”
