Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, tweeted directly to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday amid the continuing fallout from her comparison of U.S. migrant detention centers to concentration camps.
“.@AOC Concentration camps assured a slave labor supply to help in the Nazi war effort, even as the brutality of life inside the camps helped assure the ultimate goal of ‘extermination through labor,'” the account wrote, adding, “Learn about concentration camps http://ow.ly/LtnX50uHJL2 #Holocaust #History”
.@AOC Concentration camps assured a slave labor supply to help in the Nazi war effort, even as the brutality of life inside the camps helped assure the ultimate goal of “extermination through labor.”
Learn about concentration camps https://t.co/oBPQsjf6FC#Holocaust #History pic.twitter.com/nmc9As2nlO
— Yad Vashem (@yadvashem) June 19, 2019
Yad Vashem joined the official Twitter of the Auschwitz Memorial, which likewise weighed in Tuesday on a debate begun by Ocasio-Cortez regarding the precise definition of “concentration camp.”
“The history of Auschwitz is far more complicated than this as it combined two functions: a concentration camp and from March 1942 an extermination center,” Auschwitz wrote, linking to one of their online educational resources.
The history of Auschwitz is far more complicated than this as it combined two functions: a concentration camp and from March 1942 an extermination center. See our online lesson: https://t.co/45MCqODtva
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 18, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez stoked fierce backlash Monday and Tuesday when she described the U.S. migrant detention centers on the southern border as “concentration camps,” sparking a vigorous online debate regarding the precise definition of the term.
Ocasio-Cortez maintained that there was a difference between “concentration camp” and “death camp,” while also criticizing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for using the word “exterminate” to describe what happened to the millions systematically murdered during the Holocaust.
