Press Secretary Sean Spicer on apology tour after insensitive Hitler comparison

PHILADELPHIA, PA (WTXF) - History books and eyewitness testimony make it all too clear: Adolph Hitler ordered the mass extermination of six million Jews, largely through the use of gas chambers, during the 1930s and 1940s as part of his "Final Solution."

But Sean Spicer's apparent ignorance of that history--and during Passover, no less--landed Spicer on a contrite "apology tour" Tuesday night into Wednesday.

"What did you learn today?" asked an interviewer Tuesday evening. "Think before you speak," Spicer said.

But outside the National Museum of American Jewish history, Myla Champ was not having it.

"Well, being a Russian-Polish Jew myself..." said Champ as she began to cry. "Sorry is not good enough! It's beyond denying history! It's hard to comprehend that!"

At 16th and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway stands America's first-ever monument to the holocaust: a 1964 sculpture titled "Monument to 6 million Jewish Martyrs," is ignored by many who pass by.

It was in this place that Fox 29 heard two very different reactions to Spicer's mea culpa.

"Once you say these things, it's out there. Sorry don't mean anything. It's just a word," said one woman.

"I think people make mistakes," said a man who described himself as being willing to "forgive and forget."

What happens when people invoke Hitler and the Holocaust?

"It never ends well," said Steven Rosenberg, chief marketing officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia

He said Spicer's comments--apology not withstanding--do little to put these mass murderers into context.

"Comparing tyrants doesn't seem to produce much good," Rosenberg said. "These are not baseball cards that you're comparing. They are all awful people."

The goal, Rosenberg said, is to teach the Holocaust to ensure it is not repeated.

"You want to do everything you can to make sure that nothing like this happens to anyone ever again."

Ultimately, Spicer's fate will be in the hands of President Trump, at whose pleasure he serves.

By late Wednesday afternoon, the president had made no new statements regarding Spicer's employment.

But for now the Trump administration once again finds itself trying to overcome a self-inflicted injury.