I'm grateful for the conversation with Andrea Pitzer. She explained how we've been thinking about concentration camps in the wrong way & how other countries that have been through this have gotten rid of them. We have a lot of work to do and everyone has a role to play. I hope you will give it a listen.
Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Andrea Pitzer, journalist and author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.
Pitzer defined the concentration camp as mass civilian detention "without any real trial. So if there was a trial," she explained, "it was just a show trial, or a big group, 100 people getting sentenced at once, something like that, done on the basis of race or ethnicity or religion or political party, rather than an actual crime that was committed. And it's almost always done to separate a targeted group from society, to remove them from society, and it's almost always also done to consolidate and build political power."
She highlighted the evolution of concentration camps from the 19th century to the Nazi era and warned of their resurgence in the United States under the Trump administration. Pitzer emphasized the importance of independent courts, legal aid, community activism and protests in combating this development.
Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. CT on WCPT 820AM or stream on Heartland Signal.
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