And Now an American Concentration Camp

Of Disdain if not Hatred

According to recent news reports, the US administration is establishing a “detention center” for undocumented persons (aka “illegal immigrants”) in the Florida Everglades. It is being called “Alligator Alcatraz.” President Trump has been recorded and shown on TV saying that the detainees must learn to run zig-zag rather than straight (if they want to escape), otherwise the alligators will get them. His attitude toward the detainees is one of disdain if not hatred.

Obviously neither the administration nor the media are calling this detention center what it obviously is—a concentration camp. Does anyone outside of the government and ICE know who will be there and for how long and exactly why? What about due process? Will any of the detainees have lawyers to take their cases to court?

Small Gas Chamber

We often do think of “concentration camp” as “extermination camp.” That is not correct. Dachau, the first German concentration camp set up by the Nazi regime was not an extermination camp. In fact, I have been there. And I have read books about it. I took a several-hour long tour of the camp led by long-time custodians with exhaustive knowledge of it. They showed me the one, rather small gas chamber and said it was never used. That is confirmed by most historians.

At first, Dachau was only for political dissidents. Then some Jews were interned there. Only late in its history did Dachau become a place of mass murder and death, mostly from executions and disease. But it was a concentration camp from the start.

Not Treated Humanely

The term “concentration camp” was coined for South African detention camps for Dutch “Boers”—men, women and children of Dutch descent. It was the English who set up the camps. Many countries have established concentration camps. Not all are extermination camps, but all are unjust insofar as the inmates are not treated humanely and given opportunity for due process.

Nothing that I have read or heard about “Alligator Alcatraz” indicates that the detainees there will be given due process, access to a court where they can plead their case and sue for release.

“Alligator Alcatraz”

I happen to know a man who served as a guard at a detention center for undocumented child immigrants. He calls it a concentration camp. I take his word for it as he is a reasonable and trustworthy person who was required to serve in that capacity for a time.

”Concentration camp” does not necessarily mean “extermination camp,” but it does mean something sinister and I believe “Alligator Alcatraz” is just that—something sinister. At the very least, unbiased observers such as ministers, social workers, reporters, etc., should be “on the inside” to make sure the detainees are treated with dignity and fairness.

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