Never Again is not Reserved Only For The Next Gas Chambers

While I was on vacation Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez referred to the detention centers on the US border as concentration camps and invoked the term Never Again.  Apparently those on the right lost their minds.  Saying she is trivializing the Shoah (Holocaust) by equating the detention centers at the border with the Nazi atrocities somehow is an insult to those who suffered in the camps.  

I personally find this argument ridiculous, in part because so many survivors have some out and said that what they see happening at the border has echoes of Germany in the 193os,  But also as a Jewish educator, who for years has taught young Jewish people that they have a special responsibility to call out injustice against others because of the Shoah.  While I understand the unique dimensions of the events of Nazi Germany and why comparisons can be dangerous and dismissive, I think drawing parallels is not out of the question.  Since the Congresswoman's statements have been made we have heard of children, living in their own filth, being care for by other children and struggling to have basic needs met.  We have also seen a government lawyer argue in court that beds, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes were not necessary to maintain safe and sanitary conditions as required by law.  Think about this, a government official made a legal argument that children held in custody by the United States of America (for an act that isn't illegal in many cases) are not worthy of a bed, soap, blankets and toothbrushes because it isn't necessary.  Surprisingly doing that to your own children would get you a visit from child services.  

Ocasio-Cortez used the phrase concentration camps because by definition that is what they are.  Centers designed to house a particular group of people.  They have also chosen to separate families, forcing children to be in cages, apart from their parents.  People hired to watch over these individuals have be accused of sexual assault and people have died.  Meanwhile and effort is taking place to blame the very victims of this government policy and for some reason the democrats as the President and Vice-President both were in interviews today lying about the situation.  They are reaching their supporters, as one said,  "Quit trying to make us feel teary-eyed for the children. Yes, I love children a great deal, but to me, it's up to the parents to do things rightfully and legally"  I will remind everyone that many in these detention centers are seeking asylum which is not illegal. 

But the use of the phrase Never Again has caused some people to really go off the deep end.  Representative Steven King for Iowa, who has lost committee seats because he is an unapologetic White Supremacist attacked Rep. Ocasio-Cortez saying she should go visit the camps like he did.  On that trip King also took an interview with Neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.  So there is that.  But let's think about what Never Again means.  The phrase was never intended to be only about Jews.  Never Again is a shofar call to stand up to injustice everywhere.  The Torah teaches us Tzedeck Tzedeck Tirdof.  Justice you shall pursue.  The repetition of word justice clue that this is not a sit back and wait for justice to happen, but to actively go out and make it happen.  Calling out injustice is a charge to all Jews (and I think to all humans) and so when we say Never Again, we mean no one should have to live what the Jews went through.  We can only do that when we call it out long before gas chambers are built or systematic killing is taking place.

The Shoah did not start with gas chambers, it started with the dehumanizing of groups of people.  People with disabilities being referred to as "Life unworthy of life" led some to allow themselves or family members to die for the great good of the country.  Once you can dehumanize a person it is easier to do it with others.  Soon we find that people who have been programmed this way will not only allow but cheer the deaths of others.  This is what happens in genocide.  By the time people become comfortable with the arrests, the beatings or the killing of others it is too late to stop it.  But early on, when people are still uncertain, calling it out can stop a direction that could lead to the same kinds of horrors that we saw in Germany in the 20th century.  I will remind people that even as the events were happening and it became known, there were many who couldn't believe it, not in a modern country like Germany.  That disbelief helps bolster the perpetrators.   When we say Never Again, we must use the strongest language to condemn acts that are dehumanizing people, just like what is happening on the border.  Representative Ocasio-Cortez was doing just that, calling it as she saw it.  In her mind and the minds of many the US is building concentration camps on the border, treating those held there in horrible ways and doing it as a punishment for seeking a better life in our country.  In part because the current leadership doesn't want them here.  Never again means we must act to stop this.  Not because we believe that it will lead to same kinds of murder as was done by the Nazis, but because we should never allow a system to get to the point where that is even possible.  Even if we believe as that one Trump supporter said that the parents acted illegally and that is true for everyone who the government is holding.  A good measure of the morality of a country is how it treats its prisoners.  By that standard we are failing as we are marching closer and closer to dehumanizing those crossing our southern border.  We can all look back to history and see at no time did that kind of dehumanizing end well, for victims and perpetrators alike.  Never again demands we act now before it goes to far and as a Jew, an American and a human being I have no problem with AOC's language and the phoney outrage on the right is sickening.