As AOC Accuses US of Running Concentration Camps, a Fact Check from Auschwitz and a Holocaust Survivor
The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum is weighing in on a controversy caused by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who accused the US is running "concentration camps" on the southern border.
The museum joined the conversation tweeting: "The history of Auschwitz is far more complicated than this as it combined two functions: a concentration camp and from March 1942 an extermination center." They then provided a link to an online lesson telling the history of the real concentration camps run by the Nazis.
While the story of Auschwitz is complex as it was both a concentration & extermination camp in a context of war & occupation, the 12-years history of development of concentration camps in Nazi Germany is more complicated. Read Nikolaus Wachsmann book "KL": https://t.co/WN7E2ICesC pic.twitter.com/zr6oNydJHN
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 18, 2019
It all started after Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: "This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying. This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis."
This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019
This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis https://t.co/2dWHxb7UuL
AOC then linked to an Esquire article where an author of a book on the history of concentration camps defines them as "mass detention of civilians without trial."
Hi @AOC -
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 22, 2019
You say America runs concentration camps.
I spoke with people who have true authority on this issue: David & Sami. They both survived real Nazi concentration camps.
They have a message for anyone who thinks America runs concentration camps.
AOC - Please listen, for once pic.twitter.com/hGOwa1T2UG
The whole thing has caused a debate across social media. Pro-Israel public speaker Hananya Naftali tweeted, "Rep. #AOC needs to apologize to the entire world for her shameful words," highlighting the account a Holocaust survivor who rejects AOC's claim saying America does NOT run concentration camps.
"Grow up. You know how to spell, how to read, how to listen. Do it," the Holocaust survivor says in the Daily Caller interview. "You can't compare. Anytime I hear it it's sickening."
Holocaust Survivor: America Does NOT Run Concentration Camps.
— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) June 20, 2019
Rep. #AOC needs to apologize to the entire world for her shameful words. #Antisemitism
Via Daily Caller pic.twitter.com/IU9RsCI45r
And even Dictionary websites like Merriam-Webster's show the word trending with many people looking up the standard definition which reads: "A place where large numbers of people... such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority... are detained or confined under armed guard —used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners."
Many conservative politicians and analysts have said Ocasio-Cortez owes every Jew an apology for the comparison.
