Anne Frank: A Lesson in the Deconstruction of a Human Identity

I read an article online today on what Anne Frank's arrest might have been like, and it made me think about the parallels between the plight of European Jews during WWII, and that of the immigrant children who have come to the United States seeking safety and a chance at life.  The Diary of Anne Frank was one of my favorite books as a kid. Every time I think of her and her family, my heart breaks again for them; for what they lost; for her father who had EVERYTHING taken from him. Imagine a world where CHILDREN in danger are arrested for being of a particular religion! 

The dehumanization of the Jews was a tactic that Nazis used make it easy for people to look the other way when their neighbors were carted off to die. It was also a reminder to those who were NOT Jews that the Nazis could decide to come for them next, so they had better toe the line. Throughout history, this particular tactic has been used to give a cover of immunity to those who would enslave millions of African people and ship them all over the world like sacks of beans to be bought and sold. It was the foundation for the stronghold that slavery maintained in the American South long after it had been abolished everywhere else. It was done to the Native Americans, making it seem totally OK to murder their children and steal their land. It was done to Aborigines so that the vast island that is Australia could be stolen in the name of a king. They weren't made "citizens" of their OWN country until 1967. Dehumanization stoked the fire that was apartheid in South Africa, and it burned away 27 years of Nelson Mandela's life.

Now imagine a world where children in danger are, for all intents and purposes, arrested for being from the wrong country. Whatever the circumstances of their arrival, the likelihood is that if their skin color was white, their hair blond, and their language European, no one would advocate turning them away. But they are not. They are brown-skinned children who speak Spanish and come from places like El Salvador. According to many, this automatically means they are criminals who want to "steal, drain, defraud, etc." They are DANGEROUS! They are....less than human. If we do not learn from the atrocities of the past, we WILL continue to repeat them.