The senior U.N. official on human rights said Wednesday the words some politicians and journalists are using to describe the European migrant crisis remind him of the years leading up to the Holocaust.
“It’s just a political issue that is being ramped up by those who can use the excuse of even the smallest community as a threat to the sort of national purity of the state,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told The Guardian, referring to the use of such terms as “swarms of refugees” to describe the migrants.
“Why is there so much amnesia?” he added. “Why don’t they properly distill from their experience that they’ve been down this road before, and it’s a very unhappy road if you continue to follow it.” (RELATED: WSJ Admits Migrant Surge Will Burden Europe’s Economy)
Politicians used similar language to justify the rejection of large numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s reign in Austria, Hussein said. And as a result of their success in portraying the Jewish refugees as a threat to communities and a burden to the economy, Hitler had an easier time justifying their extermination.
“At the time, the Australian delegate said that if Australia accepted large numbers of European Jews, they’d be importing Europe’s racial problem into Australia,” Hussein said. “I’m sure that in later years, he regretted that he ever said this — knowing what happened subsequently — but this is precisely the point.”
“Closer examination of history and a closer examination of what happened in Europe in the early part of the 20th century should make people think very carefully about what it is that they’re saying,” he added. “These are human beings.”
Germany is taking the lead in Europe’s efforts to deal with the millions of migrants expected to cross its borders in the next few years — expecting to take in one million this year — and is encouraging other countries to share the burden.
But pride and elation is turning to fear as the migrants actually make their way into local German communities, and a German newspaper recently reported officials are struggling to “ward off panic.” Poorer countries are resisting taking in even a small number of migrants.
“There have … been signs that the initial elation is fading,” reported Der Spiegel. “Germany is struggling to maintain its composure and to ward off panic.”
Residents are concerned about the possibility of terrorists using the migrant wave to gain access to the European Union, and that the migrants will overly burden the economy. (RELATED: Syrians In Russia Exploit Migrant Crisis To Seek Asylum In Europe)
A Munich-based economic research firm found an additional 800,000 migrants this year would cost Germany about 10 billion euros, in what the firm calls a “conservative” estimate that does not take into account family members joining the refugees and educational measures.
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