ICE Detention Centers: Are They Concentration Camps? Compare and Contrast

(Photo: Robert LeRoy (Otto Lefkovitz, Survivor of Auschwitz and Bunzlau))

The Nazis sent my father to Auschwitz as a teenager. Auschwitz was both a concentration camp and a death camp. His parents, brother, and sister were gassed to death. My father and his two brothers, and his older sister, were sent to labor camps. In the charts below, I am comparing and contrasting what we know about ICE detention centers (which is limited) to my father’s labor camp (Bunzlau).

	Bunzlau	ICE Detention Centers
Armed Perimeter	Yes	Yes
Detention	Yes	Yes
Locked Cage	No	Yes
Medical Care	None	Some
Subsistence Diet	No	Yes
Basic Hygiene	No	Spotty
Heating/AC	None	Not Sure
Respectful Treatment by Guards	No	Not Sure
Forced Labor	Yes	Not Exactly but Forced Labor for $1/day Pay at Some Private Locations
Beatings by Guards	Yes	None Reported
Legal Basis for Detention	No	Yes but Alternatives to detention are Allowed by Law
Bed	Wooden Bunk, No Mattress	Some Beds, Some with Sleep on Floor
Standing Room Only	No (Though Yes in Train Transport)	Some
Tatoo Detainees	No (By 1944, Nazis Did Not Tatoo Laborers)	No
Access to Legal Process	No	Yes But Very Delayed
Legal Representation	No	Yes But Very Limited

Draw your own conclusions. For most of 2018-2019, I have thought of ICE detention centers as comparable to internment camps for Japanese Americans. Those camps were guarded and had a perimeter, but detainees had school, work, and even Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

More recently, the ICE detention centers approach my father’s situation. They are not the same, in my opinion—but the differences are starting to diminish.