America’s attack on immigrants stirs painful memories for a Jewish resident
When Waltham business owner Edvin Alvarez was grabbed by ICE agents last New Years Eve, it seemed as if immigration enforcement was yet again pushing far beyond what was expected. The Trump administration had said it was targeting violent criminals among immigrants who had entered America illegally. Yet here was a man who had come to America from Guatemala 21 years ago, had graduated from Waltham High School, and run his own landscaping business. His family said he had never been arrested and was here legally.
But that is the way authoritarian assaults on minority groups tend to evolve. The Nazi assault on Jews in the 1930s started off similarly in important respects to the Trump administration’s assault on immigrants.
Germany’s equivalent of migrants when the Nazis assumed power in 1933 were about 16,000 Jews from Poland, Romania, and other eastern European countries who had immigrated to Germany in the years after World War I. Many had become integrated into German society, with professions and their own businesses. In July 1933, the Nazis authorized the “denaturalization” of these Jews, and from one day to the next, they and their families lost their citizenship, along with their money and property, and were forced to return to the countries they left.
After that came pressure on the half million German Jews born in Germany to “self deport”. But self-deport where? Unlike American immigrants, most German Jews had been born in Germany, to families that had been there for generations.
In 1935, came another more devastating blow to German Jews—the new Nuremberg laws reduced Jews to ‘subjects’, or second-class citizens. They could no longer vote, or work in many professions. Jewish business owners were targeted for even the slightest regulatory infractions.
In late 1936, my grandfather was arrested at his beef tallow factory, partly because of allegations he had a dirty factory. But citizenship became the dominant issue–a local newspaper ran a sensational article about the arrest of “the Jew Joseph,” and “the incredible impertinence with which the Jew still abuses the hospitality of his German guest country…” Court documents similarly referred to my grandfather as “a guest” in Germany. Even though he had been born in Germany and had served in the German army during World War I, the Nuremberg laws had rendered him the equivalent of a migrant.
The situation was not unlike what is unfolding all around America as immigrants, many of whom have been here long enough to have established businesses and are in categories that were considered legal a year ago, are suddenly declared illegal immigrants by government fiat. They are being rounded up in big cities and small towns, and sent to holding facilities or even deported to countries other than where they came from.
Three months after his seizure, Edvin Alvarez was still being held in late March, apparently having been shifted among various facilities.
But there is one big difference between the arrest of Alvarez and my grandfather: the public reactions to the two arrests. For my grandfather in 1936, the local media reports were virtriolic in their hostility, and there was no visible public support for him.
In contrast, Alvarez’s situation was very quickly broadcast on Facebook, and a GoFundMe appeal set up to raise money for the business owner’s legal fees. Within weeks, the appeal had reached its initial $17,000 goal, and by late March, it was nearly $24,000. Other similar financial appeals have been established around the country for family members detained by ICE.
By the late 1930s, the Nazis had begun construction of concentration camps. On November 9, 1938, Jewish businesses were attacked (including my great uncle’s in Kassel, pictured below). In America, there have been reports of the Trump administration leasing giant warehouses as a modern-day version of camps. Yet opposition has already sprung up, and in mid-March, a proposed warehouse detention center in Merrimack, NH, was pulled back. The German and American parallel paths on immigration are hopefully pulling further apart.
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‘How could it have happened?’ That’s a haunting question about how German citizenry stood by as the governing Nazi Party was systematically able to orchestrate the murder of six million Jews during the Second World War. Of course it didn’t happen overnight, it was a drip, drip process starting with small breaks in the foundation of Germany’s democracy. In his article, ‘America’s attack on immigrants stirs painful memories for a Jewish resident’, author David Gumpert lays out some uncomfortable similarities in how cracks in the foundation of our democracy are now also beginning to emerge under our watch and the discomfort many are feeling.
Gumpert concludes his piece, however, with a note of optimism. He notes our nationwide protests and court challenges to many administration policies. The ‘No Kings’ rallies are but one example. These mass gatherings of concerned Americans differ dramatically from Nazi Germany’s unimpeded march towards selective identification, mass detention, deportation, and ultimately the Final Solution to its ‘Jewish Problem’.
Mr. Gumpert’s writing raises a warning flag. It behooves us to pay attention, and take action – evil succeeds when good people do nothing.
Immigrants? Or illegal immigrants? There is a vast difference between the two. Deporting migrants who entered the United States illegally is what the American people voted for! Left wing massachusetts is not an accurate representation of the majority of the American public that is fully supporting mass deportations.
100% agree with the councilors comment above. This is a dangerous article! Just because you came here and started. Business etc did you do it legally? This is not a it race!
It’s sad to see history repeating itself in this country.
With the utmost respect for what you’ve said, I must take issue with much of it. Likening anything that one disagrees with with Nazism is harmful to legitimate, good faith dialogue in this country. Your article says that the situation is “not unlike what is unfolding all around America,” and implies that our country is on the verge of establishing death camps. The immigration laws are not new and you certainly have a right to object to how they are being enforced. As a child of legal immigrants who has represented mostly legal immigrants from more than 80 countries, it is always notable that opponents of immigration enforcement just use words like “came to America…” without ever referencing the obvious fact that they came illegally. I fell great sympathy for those who came illegally and were essentially sold a “bill of goods,” i.e. that there would never be any ramifications to their actions. This is especially true for children. By the way, I know Edvin Alvarez and he’s a nice man. But to equate enforcement of immigration laws with Nazism I believe to be intellectually dishonest and unhelpful.
Carl, What was legal immigration unless you were Asian, in the early 20th century was essentially to come to the US answer some questions and undergo a quick physical and then good luck. It was far different from the bureaucratic quagmire of the past eighty years. A process that was both unfair in its application and almost impenetrable for non-english speakers. It was a failure of both Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement on immigration reforms that eventually led to the waves of illegal immigrants that nobody really cared about until recently. If it were merely fair enforcement of the immigration laws that we were talking about I doubt that there would be much of an uproar. But what is happening with ICE is much more than that. Mr. Gumpert is correct in his comparisons. While not as dire a situation as with his ancestors it was seemingly on the same early path and it’s good to be reminded of history so that in some ways we do not repeat it.
Your comment is well taken. I’ll just say that America is at this point well ahead of Nazi Germany in rounding up and detaining its targeted scapegoats (immigrants of color, versus Jews in Germany). At this point, 14 months into its rule, Nazi Germany did not have the array of detention centers that we have established. It had not yet planned out a network of concentration camps, as we are doing; we’re just re-purposing warehouses as mass detention centers/concentration camps; that took a good five years into Nazi rule. The people doing the round ups in Germany were thugs, much like our ICE agents, but at least they didn’t wear masks.
Your use of the term “legal immigrants” is curious, since its meaning keeps changing. Immigrants from Haiti were accorded special protection during the Biden administration, yet from one day to the next they were declared illegal by the Trump administration. Immigrants seeking political asylum in the U.S. and legally here awaiting hearings were similarly declared illegal from one day to the next. Not just declared illegal, but then rounded up. The question of legality in immigration has been turned on its head. Heck, this administration is even attempting to upend birthright citizenship, guaranteed by the 14th amendment, via executive order, with arguments currently ongoing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
I appreciate that it’s difficult to hear accusations that America may be behaving worse toward its chosen scapegoats 14 months into the current administration’s rule than the Nazis did. It pains me no end to see immigrants in America going through the kind of suffering my family went through.