Associate Professor Laurel Leff wrote a letter to the editor that was published by The New York Times about the many comparisons that are being made between today’s immigration crisis in Europe, and the imprisonment of thousands of Jews during World War II.
“Having researched the unsuccessful struggle of the world community to find homes for the hundreds of thousands of Jews trying to flee Hitler’s Europe, I am as horrified as anyone by today’s scenes of refugees crammed onto unsafe boats and huddled in crowded camps.
Much in the current tragedy evokes that previous refugee crisis: the hardened, bureaucratic attitude of immigration officials, the willingness of individuals, and even some countries, to profit from other people’s misery by promising them passage in unseaworthy vessels or unventilated trucks or to unwelcoming ports.”