A rumor that an image depicted U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's ancestor as an Auschwitz guard has circulated widely online. For example, X user @anarie_whit posted the claim (archived) on July 2, 2025:
Throwback pic of a Kristi Noem ancestor (a guard at Auschwitz) and Kristi herself at her own modern 'auschwitz'.....?
Variations of the rumor spread on other platforms — including Facebook (archived), Threads, TikTok and Bluesky (archived), as well. Several users pointed to Substack writer Jeff Tiedrich for credit, but we were not immediately able to find evidence of the claim on the user's Substack page. We sent the Substack user a message seeking confirmation and will update this story if we receive a response.
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, X user @anarie_whit — whose post users most widely circulated with more than 2.9 million views as of this writing — confirmed in the comments that the post was satirical. "It was a satirical QUESTION. The point was to show that evil (in whatever era) laughs at their own cruelty," the user wrote (archived).
There's no evidence that the woman depicted in the historical photograph was related to Noem, nor that Noem had any Nazi ancestors. A DuckDuckGo search with the keywords "Kristi Noem Auschwitz ancestor" (archived) only turned up results related to the claim in question; no reputable news outlet had written a story pertaining to her ancestry. The former governor of South Dakota once mentioned in an Instagram post that she was a "proud Norwegian."
The historical image, however, was authentic and not AI-generated or altered. It's available on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archive, dated July 1944. The caption: "Nazi officers and female auxiliaries (Helferinnen) pose on a wooden bridge in Solahuette. The man on the right carries an accordion. Karl Hoecker is pictured in the center. The original caption "Regen aus heiteren Himmel" [Suddenly, it started to rain.]" Solahuette was a Nazi resort a short drive from Auschwitz, in Poland.
(U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
The fictional story spread as rumors surrounding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity continue to spread. More specifically, a new migrant detention center, "Alligator Alcatraz," made headlines after it opened in Florida in July 2025.
Snopes has addressed similar claims about Noem in the past, including the assertion that she testified to Congress that Republicans voted to allow ICE to employ participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and a rumor that she supported a reality TV show where immigrants competed for U.S. citizenship.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.