Israel's Holocaust museum tells Sean Spicer to check its website and learn some history

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance centre in Jerusalem, told White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to check their website after remarks made on 11 April, where he said Adolf Hitler had not used chemical weapons.

"In light of recent statements made by White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, encourages him to visit the Yad Vashem website to learn about the Holocaust and its period in history," the centre said in a statement.

The statement went on to say that Yad Vashem has "deep concern regarding the inaccurate and insensitive use of terms related to the Holocaust by the White House Press Secretary," adding that Spicer's remarks "imply a profound lack of knowledge of events of the Second World War, including the Holocaust."

"Moreover," the museum said, "they are liable to strengthen the hands of those whose goal is to distort history."

Speaking in Washington DC on 12 April, having been lambasted for the comments, Spicer said that he had "let the president down."

"Your job as the spokesperson is to help amplify the president's actions and accomplishments and I think he's had an unbelievable, successful couple weeks," Spicer told the audience at the Newseum, "and when you're distracting from that message of accomplishment and your job is to be the exact opposite, on a professional level it's dissapointing".

During the 11 April press briefing – while discussing the situation in Syria – Spicer said that Hitler "didn't even sink to using chemical weapons." When given the chance to clarify, he compounded the problem, saying Hitler "was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing".