Actual Holocaust Survivor Speaks Out Against Trump Comparisons
Critics of President Donald Trump demean the suffering of the Jewish people when they cite the Holocaust in opposing the president’s immigration policy, according to Holocaust survivor David Tuck.
“Wake up,” he told The Daily Caller. “Look it up. This is not the Holocaust.”
Trump’s critics have been quick to compare Nazi Germany to the long-standing federal policy of separating adults and children when adults try to enter the country illegally, as noted by Newsbusters.
“Some have argued that these detention centers are reminiscent of Japanese internment camps or even concentration camps in Nazi Germany,” NBC’s Lester Holt proclaimed.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal also felt the need to equate the darkest chapters in history to the policy of family separation.
“This policy of family separation reminds us of the cattle cars of Nazi Germany when children were separated from their parents. It reminds us of the Japanese internment camps,” the Connecticut Democrat said.
These comparisons irk Tuck, who was born in Poland in 1929 and was shuttled among three concentration camps during World War II, including the notorious Auschwitz death camp.
“They know nothing of the Holocaust,” Tuck said. “They are politicians, looking to get paid.”
Contrasting detention centers with the Nazi camps, he said the facilities along the border are more akin to “a country club.”
“I was given a piece of bread in the morning. A piece of bread in the evening,” Tuck said. “I had to survive with my life.”
Tuck said that he understands the desire to come to America, but disapproves of illegal immigration.
“They want to come to America. So did I,” Tuck said. “But you have to know who is coming in. It is wrong to separate the kids from the parents. But to call it a concentration camp? That is wrong.”
Tuck also condemned the casual use of Nazi words and imagery in American political debate.
“When I saw the swastikas and the signs that said ‘Jews Leave America’ it brought back terrible memories,” he said, recalling marches that took place last fall.
Tuck was not alone in condemning Trump critics likening current policy to the Holocaust.
“The use of any Holocaust imagery and references to Hitler, no matter how vehemently you oppose Trump, is at best a lazy, hyperbolic exaggeration that reflects more on the ignorance of the one suggesting it than on Trump or anyone else one might compare Hitler to. In its worst form, it is a concerted effort to dilute and tone down the true horror of the Holocaust, ” Times of Israel blogger Perry Dubinsky of Florida wrote.
Dubinsky turned his anger on those who use the term loosely.
“You may disagree with Trump’s border policy and his entire MAGA agenda, you may hate the way he talks or styles his hair. That’s your right. What you don’t have the right to do is take the lazy way out of expressing yourself because it is an affront to the memory of each of those souls murdered by one man and his army, at one time in history. Frankly, if you’re resorting to Hitler as your fall back argument, you probably haven’t thought out your opinion well enough to express it,” he wrote.
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