A Democratic congresswoman has given a scathing review of the Trump administrationās so-called āAlligator Alcatrazā in Florida, describing it as an āinternment campā that needs to be āshut the hell down.ā
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Floridaās 25th congressional district, said that pictures of the facility ādonāt do it justiceā and that detainees were being āpacked into cages.ā
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.
Youāre right, BUT -
this is a majorly fucked up timeline when people are complaining that itās too mean to call a US concentration camp āAuschwitzā when itās clearly just harmless little āDachau.ā Dachau led to Auschwitz and if the normalization of it is any indication, it WILL happen again here. THATāS why people are calling it that - weāve seen this shit before and know how it ends.
I see it another way.
By the time Auschwitz happened it was already way too late to oppse the Nazi Regime. It was too late to save lifes and prevent tragedy. But at Dachau it wasnāt.
It also makes it seem like this (Donalds Dachau) is the endgame. Like this is the worst they will do. When they will in fact do much worse.
By calling it an Auschwitz, I feel weāre kind of throwing a towel and telling ourselves that the MAGA-Regime is already too powerful. It isnāt. Theyāre only just starting, they can still be stopped. It also makes it seem like this is the height of their tyranny, which it isnāt. Noone should stay at home thinking āwell, it isnāt that badā but instead go to the streets thinking āit mustnāt get worseā
Also we all know that Dachau isnāt āharmlessā in any way, and my comment should be pretty clear that it was awful. Comparing it to dachau isnāt normalizing it, it isnāt disrespectful, because itās what gets closest to it. On the other hands it can be seen as disrespectful to all those who suffered and even perished in Birkenau to be compared to āDonalds Dachauā.
Lastly let me assure you that I am NOT, as implied in your comment, defending the current US-Regime nor normalizing Dachau.
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 canāt 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 isnāt 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 āStaatsrƤsonā 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 āi could have never done thisā or āi would have fought against this, how could the people?!ā and now we see the same writings on the wall here in Germany again and most people do fuck all, if they donāt already openly embrace it
I hate how often people act like this is the case. We Americans will soon be making ātheā Holocaust āaā 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.