A Polish politician – Dominik Tarczyński – has issued a formal invitation to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), inviting her to fly to Poland to “study the concentration camps here for real.”
His aim is to show her how much they differ from migrant detention facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I write to you out of distress in having learned of your recent statements regarding concentration camps,” Tarczyński, a member of Poland’s Parliament, outlined in a letter addressed to Ocasio-Cortez Thursday.
Tarczyński gave the New York lawmaker a brief history on the reality of the Holocaust and the “deep wound that persists” in the country due to the sheer number of concentration camps set up within it.
He wrote:
While under German Nazi occupation, a number of concentration camps were set up in my country, Poland. It has caused a deep wound that persists on our proud Polish and European history that we must deal with every single day, and that we reaffirm to one another can never be forgotten, and never allowed to happen again.
He added Ocasio-Cortez is cheapening history and using it to score political points among supporters.
“This is why when someone cheapens the history, or uses it for political point-scoring, we become agitated and upset,” he wrote, while discouraging her from using the phrase “concentration camps” for political purposes.
He ended the letter by extending an “olive branch of education,” formally inviting Ocasio-Cortez to travel to Poland to “study the concentration camps here for real” and see how much they differ from migrant detention centers in America.
“At your convenience, we could visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Majdanek,” he proposed. “At these camps and others, over three million human souls were extinguished, and millions more detained and affected directly.”
“You speak often of bipartisanship, and I feel this is one area in particular where we can begin to live that ideal,” he concluded.
With this letter, I am formally inviting @AOC to come to Poland,where Adolf Hitler set up the worst chain of concentration camps the world has ever seen, so that she may see that scoring political points with enflamed rhetoric is unacceptable in our contemporary Western societies pic.twitter.com/ivOTfmiCfo
— TARCZYŃSKI Dominik (@D_Tarczynski) June 20, 2019
The political controversy began after Ocasio-Cortez accused the U.S. of running “concentration camps” on the border during an Instagram live video Monday evening.
“That is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” she said. “The fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.”
That, of course, is false.
As Breitbart News reported:
Detention facilities are a far cry from both concentration camps and certainly from death camps. Detention facilities serve as a temporary holding place for illegal migrants – not U.S. citizens or civilians – while their claims and hearings are being processed. Additionally, detention centers provide another layer of security for the American people.
According to a report last week, ICE had to quarantine 4,200 migrant detainees for exposure to mumps, 800 for exposure to chicken pox, and 100 were quarantined for exposure to both.
The quarantine stretches across many of the 39 immigrant detention centers, where many await their deportation hearings.
On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez announced she would “never apologize” for comparing detention centers to concentration camps and invoking “Never Again,” – a remembrance phrase commonly associated with the Holocaust.
DHS ripped 1000s of children from their parents & put them in cages w inhumane conditions.
They call their cells “dog pounds” & “freezers.”
I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are.
If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps – not the nomenclature. https://t.co/eJpJWeYiot
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 19, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez previously said her description was “not hyperbole” and pointed to the “dictionary” in an attempt to validate her assessment.
There are no reports indicating that Ocasio-Cortez has responded to Tarczyński’s letter, but she recently bragged about flying to visit a “concentration camp where the Trump admin was keeping children they stole from their parents,” which demonstrates her willingness to travel to view these issues firsthand.
This video was from 1 year ago this week – before my primary & the Fox News cycle.
I flew to the concentration camp where the Trump admin was keeping children they stole from their parents.
Back then, I was voicing my conscience. I still am. #AbolishICEpic.twitter.com/QLyc9MiMsV
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019
That being considered, a response could be forthcoming.
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