Readers React: Call them ‘concentration camps,’ a Holocaust survivor’s daughter says

To the editor: Similar to the letter writer who decries comparisons between migrant detention camps in the U.S. to concentration camps during World War II, I am the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor.

I believe that what the United States is doing at our southern border is similar to what happened to many Jews seeking asylum in the United States during World War II.

We cannot forget the German ocean liner St. Louis, whose 937 passengers (almost all Jewish) were turned away off the coast of Florida in 1939. The ship returned to Europe, where many who were on board died in the Holocaust.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration regarded Jewish refugees as a potential threat to national security. (Sound familiar?) Immigration quotas were tightened for people from Germany and Austria.

We must be a country of compassion. The detention centers remind me of those photos of Jews in concentration camps. Never again.

Sharon Shilkoff, Woodland Hills

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