Eva Schloss: Trump is the new Hitler

[pErvinalia]

Today is the International Holocaust Memorial, marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by the Red Army in 1945. It is a day to reflect on the absolute horrors that humankind can inflict on each other; on the dangers that divisive and exclusionary ethnonationalist propaganda pose to peace and stability. It is extremely disappointing to see that seventy-one years later, we seem to be forgetting the lessons of the past.

American presidential candidates in the Republican Party are openly espousing proposals and language that accompany genocide. Front-runner Donald Trump has pushed American racism into the public sphere, scapegoating Muslims and Hispanic immigrants as threats to white Christians. He has proposed monitoring and registering Muslims in a national databases, forcing Muslims to wear special identifying badges, and mass deportations. He is openly supported by neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, and uses his Twitter account to retweet and cirulate their ideas. His campaign spokewoman openly dehumanizes Muslims, and is joined in that regard by Ben Carson, who referred to Syrian refugees as “rabid dogs.”

Taken together, those statements and proposals meet the criteria for the first three of Genocide Watch’s eight stages of genocide – classification, symbolization, and dehumanization. It’s disturbing enough to prompt Auschwitz survivor and Anne Frank’s stepsister, Eva Schloss, 86, to call out Trump for his racist rhetoric and his refusal to show compassion for refugees fleeing unimaginable violence in Syria:

The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “Don’t stand by”. This is particularly important now with the refugee crisis going on as more people than ever are being bystanders. We haven’t really learnt anything—I’m depressed by the current situation. The experience of the Syrian refugees is similar to what we went through.

I was 11 years old when my family first immigrated to Belgium [after Hitler annexed Austria in 1938]. We were treated as if we had come from the moon. I felt as if I wasn’t wanted and that I was different to everybody. It is even harder for today’s Syrian refugees who have a very different culture. We were Europeans as well as Jews—we were assimilated. I was shocked that I wasn’t accepted like an ordinary person. I am very upset that today again so many countries are closing their borders. Fewer people would have died in the Holocaust if the world had accepted more Jewish refugees.

This is not just a European problem, it’s a global problem. If countries as big as the U.S. and Canada would take in more people, then we would get much closer to a solution. If Donald Trump become the next president of the U.S. it would be a complete disaster. I think he is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism.

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/anne-fra ... ew-hitler/

[cronus]

He hasn't killed anyone yet, as far as we know, but you can't get it on much more authority than that....he has the spear of destiny and millions now living will soon die at his hands....

[NineBerry]

I wouldn't say that people that survived the Holocaust as children have a special authority to speak on current politics. The comparison of Trump with Hitler is very foolish and very much trivializes the crimes of the Nazis.

[Tyrannical]

I bet she'd change her tune if she met up with some of those refugees she's so fond of at they finger her for a Jew

[NineBerry]

I hope a church van hits you.

[pErvinalia]