A Democratic congresswoman has given a scathing review of the Trump administration’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, describing it as an “internment camp” that needs to be “shut the hell down.”
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 25th congressional district, said that pictures of the facility “don’t do it justice” and that detainees were being “packed into cages.”
On Saturday Florida lawmakers from both parties took a state-arranged tour of the new 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Everglades.
Well, in Germany we got hammered it in that any likening of anything that was not part of the Holocaust to parts of the Holocaust is inherently antisemitic and a new form of nazism. The Holocaust is supposed to be unique and special forever, as no one is as good at exterminating people like we Germans are and Jews are the eternal victims, hence Israel can’t do any wrong. Conveniently ignoring how other victims of the Holocaust such as Sinti and Roma are still facing rampant systemic discrimination in Germany and also that understanding of Jewish victims being limited to Israelis or people loyal to Israel, whereas Jews who criticize Israel face various forms of repression in Germany.
Now obviously that isn’t the way it is taught directly, but it does involve a sick guilt pride on the one hand and the immediate shut down of any criticism of anything that actually does have parallels to aspects of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. Or well, that is as long as the criticism is geared towards our allies such as the US and Israel.
Unfortunately the whole debate has been deeply intoxicated and instrumentalized in the “Staatsräson” logic of unconditional support for any and every atrocity, as long as it serves the current Israeli state and its government.
From the best attempt of a neutral perspective: In Auschwitz the Nazis murdered about 1.5 Million people. At its peak there were about 150,000 - 200,000 people concentrated there. From medicinal experiments on humans to random acts of brutal violence there has been all sorts of further gruesome atrocities piled on top of the systematic extermination. So in terms of scale the comparison really cannot come even remotely close.
I do agree with you that these atrocities escalate and escalate quickly, when left unchallenged. The idea that Germany, Israel, the US or anyone other state entity truly learned a lesson of humanity from the horrors of the Holocaust and there would be a certain prevention unfortunately also is wrong. I remember how in school everybody was like “i could have never done this” or “i would have fought against this, how could the people?!” and now we see the same writings on the wall here in Germany again and most people do fuck all, if they don’t already openly embrace it
I hate how often people act like this is the case. We Americans will soon be making “the” Holocaust “a” Holocaust and prove that the Germans were not somehow unique in committing crimes against humanity, and I hate that so many of us are this fucking stupid and evil.