J.D. Vance Visits Dachau With Usha, Meets Shoah Survivor Abba Naor

U.S. vice president J.D. Vance visited the Nazi concentration camp site of Dachau in southern Germany on Thursday, accompanied by his wife Usha, before participating in the Munich Security Conference.

“In 2016 he rose to fame with the publication of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he recounts his childhood and youth marked by poverty, abuse, and his mother's struggle to break free from drugs”

El Observador

The Times of Israël reported that Vance was welcomed by Abba Naor, a Shoah survivor, and that the couple laid a wreath on a section of wall bearing the dates 1933-1945.

El Observador

The camp had been opened in March 1933 for political prisoners, and the article says more than 200,000 people of more than 40 nationalities were imprisoned there and more than 41,500 died.

The Times of Israël also said the camp was liberated by the U.S. Army on 29 April 1945, and that Vance was scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday at the opening of the Conference of Munich on the security.

Earlier in the day, the regional government chief of Bavaria Markus Soeder welcomed Vance and his family on arrival at Munich airport.

Le Soir said that Pope Leo XIV welcomed Monday morning in audience at the Vatican the American vice president J.D. Vance, according to a spokesman for the latter, the day after his participation in the inaugural Mass of the pontiff.

The same article said the Vatican released a photo of the pope receiving Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and that Vance subsequently met Mgr Paul Richard Gallagher, the pope’s Secretary of State, according to a Vatican press release.

USA Today

Le Soir reported that the two men praised the good bilateral relations and exchanged views on topics of international current affairs, hoping that in conflict zones humanitarian law and international law are respected and a negotiated solution is found.

In the Le Soir account, Vance also told the Sunday meeting that “Our prayers accompany him with confidence as he begins this very important mission,” as the pope began his mission.

The article adds that on Sunday, alongside dozens of political leaders and dignitaries, about 200,000 faithful attended the Mass on St. Peter’s Square marking the start of Leo XIV’s pontificate.

USA TODAY said Vice President JD Vance is gearing up to publish a new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” out June 16 from Harper, as his second book.

“Le vice-président américain JD Vance a visité jeudi le site du camp de concentration nazi de Dachau, dans le sud de l’Allemagne, avant de participer à la Conférence de Munich sur la sécurité”

The Times of Israël

The outlet described that in “Communion,” Vance reflects on his conversion to Catholicism after a Protestant upbringing and a stint as an atheist, and it quoted him saying, “A critical part of that journey was falling in love with a girl who would eventually become a mother four times over.”

USA TODAY also said his bestselling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” chronicles his childhood plagued by abuse, alcoholism and poverty, and that it was the basis for the 2020 Ron Howard-directed movie starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.

In the excerpt, Vance wrote that he and his friend Mike were home in Middletown over Christmas and that he took Mike to “Carol’s Speakeasy” to play darts and tell stories and drink his troubles away.

The USA TODAY excerpt then describes Vance telling Mike, “I’m single, and when we get back to Columbus, I can be your wingman. There are plenty of fish in the sea.”