Dutch Holocaust museum rejects proposed Ye visit

The mayor of the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands, Ahmed Marcouch, invited the rapper Kanye West to visit Amsterdam’s main Holocaust museum, but management there distanced itself from the invitation on Sunday and criticized the mayor for extending it.

Kanye West, or Ye, is an American performer currently on tour in the Netherlands. He has a history of making antisemitic statements, for which he apologized earlier this year.

Ye has distanced himself from previous antisemitic statements in the past, but had revisited Nazi themes and antisemitic speech also after apologizing for espousing such rhetoric. France, the United Kingdom, Poland and Italy banned him from performing there as part of his European tour. The Dutch government and judiciary ignored pleas by local Jews to prevent Ye from performing in Arnhem on Saturday and Monday.

Marcouch, a left-wing, Muslim politician who was born in Morocco and has suggested that Israel was committing a “genocide or genocidal violence” in Gaza, invited Ye to visit the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam as a gesture of goodwill toward Jews, because it is a “place for explaining, communication and education,” he told the AT5 broadcaster.

But in a statement, the management of the National Holocaust Museum said it opposed a visit by Ye, the NOS broadcaster reported. The museum “is a loaded and vulnerable historical site that offers visitors a safe space to open themselves up to an extremely sensitive and emotional history,” the statement reads.

The visit was “announced in the media without any form of prior consultation. This has an undesirable impact on other visitors and also raises concerns regarding the integrity of this memorial site,” which is “not a platform for brandishing any public image blemished by antisemitic remarks.”

The Holocaust museum is part of the Jewish Cultural Quarter of Amsterdam, which runs several institutions, including the Portuguese Synagogue and the Jewish Historical Museum.

Separately, the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands (CJO) erected a display near the concert venue in Arnhem on Saturday with some of Ye’s past quotes about Jews and Adolf Hitler, including that “especially” the Nazi dictator had “something of value.” The CJO petitioned a Dutch court to ban Ye from entering the country but he was let in even before a judge dismissed the petition.

Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Zvi Vapni, wrote on X about the display: “Can antisemitism be normalized to such an extent? The promise ‘Never again’ is being tested right now.”

In 2022, Ye told Fox News that Planned Parenthood, which facilitates abortions, “was made by Margaret Sanger, a known eugenic[ist] with the KKK, to control the Jew population,” adding that by “Jew” he meant blacks, who are the real Jews, according to the worldview he represented.

“West perpetuated the myth that Planned Parenthood was part of a conspiracy to limit the growth of the Black population by preventing the birth of Black children. But instead of saying the Black population, he called it the ‘Jew population,’” the American Jewish Committee said at the time.

Also in 2022, West wrote on social media: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

In May 2025, West released a song titled “Heil Hitler.” He has also advertised swastika T-shirts on his website.

On Jan. 26, 2026, West took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal apologizing for his behavior, blaming it on bipolar disorder. “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” he wrote. “I love Jewish people.”