Reductio ad Hitlerum?: Carcerality, the U.S. Southern Border, and Historical Memory of World War II

Abstract

US lawmakers have a long history of designating immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and communities of color as targets of state incarceration policy and the infrastructure of detention that arises from it. A year after the public discourse of migrant captivity became entangled in a high-profile exchange about the history and memory of the Holocaust, this roundtable reflects on that experience and the dialogue that it opened between the history community, journalists, museum professionals, public officials, and activists.

Chair: Christopher Brick, George Washington University

Chair: Kariann Akemi Yokota, University of Colorado Denver

Panelist: Edna Friedberg, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Panelist: Andrea Pitzer, Author ONE LONG NIGHT: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Panelist: Anika Walke, Washington University in St. Louis

Panelist: Alice Susan Yang, University of California, Santa Cruz