Mike Pence the New Himmler? Outrage After Detention Centre Visit

A video of Pence surveying detainees behind wire cages got many Americans riled up enough to invoke the Holocaust.

Photo of Heinrich Himmler next to a photo of US Vice President, Mike Pence 

(Photo:Twitter/AlyssaMilano)

After US Vice President Mike Pence’s controversial visit to border detention facilities in Texas, Twitter users and Democrats outraged over what they call inhumane living conditions for the detained immigrants and asylum seekers.

Pence claimed that those detained here were ‘well cared for’ and dismissed any claims of inhumane conditions of the border facilities, though did acknowledge that the facilities were ‘overwhelmed’.

But the sight of Mike Pence dispassionately surveying asylum seekers and immigrants behind wire cages was too much for many Americans.

A photographer then put up a tweet juxtaposing a photo of Pence with a similar one of Heinrich Himmler, one of Germany’s most powerful Nazi leaders, and considered an architect of the Holocaust.

The reaction was immediate and polarised. There was outcry not only amongst Republicans, but also among many Jews, who saw the comparison as trivialising the Holocaust.

Even the US Holocaust Museum had made it clear in an official statement that they strongly oppose careless Holocaust analogies that are created by individuals to “demonize, demean, and intimidate their targets.”

“Neither the political right nor left has a monopoly on exploiting the six million Jews murdered in a state-sponsored, systematic campaign of genocide to demonize or intimidate their political opponents.”

US Holocaust Museum in a Press Release Statement

Pence Responds

Pence himself responded to the furore, piling on the outrage.