Friday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a very important reminder of what can happen when hate wins out over tolerance, for those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It is especially important this year, because on that very day, Donald Trump decided to enact what is, essentially, a Muslim ban by halting all refugees from war-ravaged Syria and other Muslim-majority nations who are fleeing for their lives. Of course, decent people everywhere are horrified and outraged by Trump’s bigoted and deadly policies, but he has plowed on and done exactly what he promised he would do on the campaign trail.
What makes Trump’s actions especially egregious is the fact that many people who died in the Holocaust could have been saved - but the United States turned them away at the border. They were sent back to Germany and brutally murdered. This year, though, there is a Twitter account that is reminding us all of the grave atrocity America committed by sending these people to their brutal deaths in the Nazi camps. We are now witnessing Trump do the same thing, only this time it is being done to Muslims rather than Jews. Here are just a few tweets from that feed:
My name is Fritz Zweigenthal. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in France
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Max Wolff. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Abraham Wolf. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Theresienstadt
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Regina Blumenstein. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/TZXJM2Ar94
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Leopold Dingfelder. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/ZL9nkP0V5X
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Willi Dublon. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/E1VvT43351
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Lore Dublon. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Golleschau pic.twitter.com/nYjdV7Mxvn
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Werner Stein. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/nCgt9V33xm
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
Again, those are just a few. I wonder how many people who were scheduled to cross our borders from Syria and other nations will now die because Trump is turning them away as they try to escape with their lives? This is about as un-American as it gets. We did this once, and it is a dark stain that will never wash off of America’s storied history. We are now literally repeating actions we took in one of our nation and the world’s darkest hours.
Donald Trump, you have blood on your hands. Go fuck yourself.
Featured image via screen capture from Twitter