Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has apologized for his "undoubtedly offensive" remark that it would not be an American concern if the Soviet Union sent its Jews to the gas chambers.
His comment was made in 1973 in a recorded conversation about Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union with President Richard Nixon that was only recently released.
He then said: "If they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
In his apology, Kissinger, 87, said that "references to gas chambers have no place in political discourse, and I am sorry I made that remark 37 years ago".The recently released recording created consternation among Jewish groups because Kissinger is a German-born Jew who fled the Nazis.
The Anti-Defamation League said it showed a "disturbing and even callous insensitivity toward the fate of Soviet Jews".
Kissinger said his comment was taken out of context and that the Nixon administration had helped many Jews leave the Soviet Union.