I have
never been active politically in any direct sense, neither have I published my
thoughts on political matters before this. However, the current debate
surrounding an unspecified number of children kept in cages and other problematic
environments, separated from their parents, by the country that I learnt at
school is the beacon of liberty and freedom, the USA, and the nature of the
debate around these political decisions at the highest level of USA politics,
the words used by those politicians in charge, lead me to speak out.
It is
essential that the caging of children is stopped as soon as possible. Nothing
whatsoever, categorically, justifies that kind of treatment of young,
vulnerable human beings. Illegal immigration is a problem but putting children
into cages cannot be (part of) the solution.
However,
those in charge of the decisions seem not to consider those children as human.
They talk about illegal immigrants infesting the country. Infestation is a term
referring to vermin. Vermin are not human. Thus, the creatures that infest the
country, those illegal immigrants, are not human. The children in question are
the children of those immigrants, and they are therefore also not human, by
implication.
The Nazis
considered Jews as sub-human, as non-human, as vermin. They exterminated as
much vermin as they could, very efficiently. This started on a small scale and
grew to unimaginable proportions. It may have started with comparatively few
people in cages.
The US
attorney general commented on the parallel with Nazi Germany, raised by a fellow
American, a former CIA director, “In Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews
from leaving the country”. If that was the only comment by the attorney
general, then he is in fact admitting that the parallel raised by the former
CIA director is substantial, because the difference the attorney general points
out is irrelevant in the context, and many Jews did not get out of Germany because
other countries did not want them either and actively closed their borders to
them.
The Nazis had showcase
concentration camps, in which they showed the world how well the Jews were treated
in those camps. In relation to the illegal immigrant children in USA cages, the
attorney general and other speakers for the administration insist that children
separated from their parents are being treated well, and not abused. What??? A
child, separated from his/her parents, in a cage is a sign of that child being
well treated? Keeping a child, separated from his/her parents, in a cage is not
abuse? Keeping a child, separated from his/her parents, in a cage is not
torture? Why do I even have to spell this out? How can any human being doubt
that keeping a child, separated from his/her parents, in a cage is not pleasant
for a child and that this constitutes abuse and torture? How can any human
being stand in front of others and seek to justify such abuse and torture? Some
even say that the children are in those facilities, and that means in those
cages, to protect them...
The video that is going viral,
showing those children’s suffering and their pain, also has soundtrack of
officials working at those facilities, whom the authorities assure us are well
trained in taking care of children’s needs, making fun of the sounds of the children
crying. They do not come across as competent, trained or caring, but as nasty
and inhumane. Their attitude, which comes out in what they say and the way they say it, is reminiscent of what we know about the attitude of Nazi concentration camp guards.
Spokespeople of those in power say
that all is done in compliance with the law, the law as decided by Congress, the
law which officials have sworn to abide by. Is there a law that says that children of illegal immigrants, or children who cross the border illegally on their own, must be kept in cages? When confronted with their crimes,
Nazis often excused themselves that they had only followed orders.
With hindsight, many people have
asked how the Holocaust was possible. The answer is: among other things because nobody
bothered to really do anything against it, either in Germany or outside. I have
only hinted, above, at some parallels, very vaguely, very gently, to the
developments in 21st century, 2018 USA. Let us hope that history
does not repeat itself to the extent that hundreds become thousands, become
tens of thousands, and so on, and that facilities are being developed where the
current update of Zyklon B is administered to exterminate contemporary vermin.
