THE GREEK ISLANDS AND THE HOLOCAUST

Mention of the Greek Islands conjures up idyllic scenes of starch white villas with blue shutters scattered like birthday candles on the steep slopes of rugged mountains. Red bougainvillea flowers drape over the balcony overlooking the calm turquoise sea with the azure blue skies above. But the picture belies the over two millennia history of the islands that has seen bloody massacres and genocide - the most historic being the Crusader invasion and the most recent being the Holocaust where two thousand of the six million Jews who succumbed to Nazi genocide were domiciled. Furthermore the Isles only became part of Greece following the end of the Second World War having for thirty odd years been under the Italian flag who in turn, just before The Great War, succeeded the Ottoman Empire.

On two of the Greek Islands, Rhodes and Kos, that were then Italian colonies, in July 1944, the entire Jewish population was rounded up to undertake the longest journey of any of Europe’s Jews, to the death camps - almost three weeks, 13 days of which were in the cattle trains. This cold-blooded slaughter of men, women and children was part of Hitler Germany’s Third Reich’s “final solution”. Within one day of their arrival nearly nineteen hundred were no longer alive.

For seven days in July 2019, including the twenty - third, a Memorial was held on the seventy - fifth anniversary of the martyrdom of the Jews of the Dodecanese Islands. Over two hundred and fifty of their descendants gathered to pay tribute and jog the numb memory of the world. Also they assembled in the hope that atrocities of a similar nature would never take place again. Sadly genocide has since been perpetrated in Kosovo, Cambodia and Africa. 

 The over two hundred and fifty descendants, including the one remaining survivor who lives on Rhodes, gathered in solemn commemoration. The martyrs were not to be forgotten. Hopefully the lesson would be learned that even the most sophisticated, cultured and civilized countries in the world could give birth to the most racist and irrational inhumanity ever recorded. 

THE SECOND WORLD WAR WAS ABOUT RACE EXTERMINATION

The second world war wasn’t, in the final analysis for economic reasons. It wasn’t even to create an empire as repeated rationalizations have argued. Nothing illustrates the fact more than in1944, with the war already lost, essential transport by rail, which was much needed to ferry life sustaining supplies to the battle fronts, was rather being mobilized in a manic bid to round up every possible civilian jew that was in the grasp of the Fuhrer. The Jews of Rhodes and Kos were ferried to their deaths in July 1944 after Mussolini had already been deposed and Italy defeated. Italy’s and Germany’s legacy will be forever associated with the genocide of the “vermin” that were contradictorily blamed for world wide capitalism and international communism or for being too rich or too poor.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF RHODES AND KOS

The major influx of Jews, known as Sephardi, to the Dodocanese Islands followed the Spanish and then the Portuguese Inquisitions. That immigration reached its peak in the early sixteenth century. Then there is strong evidence, to be confirmed archeologically, that a “Romanesque” Jewish sect immigrated following the fall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem with the Roman expulsion of the Jews from Palestine in the year seventy of the common era. At its peak the Jewish population of Rhodes was six thousand. However extreme poverty resulted in four thousand emigrating to Central Africa and the Americas so in the 1930’s the community was about two thousand. The Islands always experienced poverty and at the time of the Holocaust eighty percent of the Jewish populations were classified as such. 

The Jews lived for nearly half a millennium in a ghetto, “The Jewish Quarter”, in the “Old City”, where all their education, worship, social activities and commerce took place. The community was tightly knit and a number of families were wealthy and were benefactors. In 1913 Baron Edmund de Rothschild founded a school which allowed several children to gain an education that they otherwise would not have had. On Rhodes there were at least four houses of worship which also served as social centers. One of these, Kal Shalom whose most recent rebuilding dates to 1841, is still in service. A Fountain in the Courtyard has the Hebrew Calendar date corresponding to 1577 indicating that an earlier construction had taken place after the arrival of the Jews who had been expelled by the Inquisition. The configuration of the interior is strongly suggestive of the Synagogues that were built early in the second millennium following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. There is thus every indication that Jews were on the island for two thousand years, 

Today the permanent Jewish Community consists of thirteen souls one of which is Sammy Modliani who went to the concentration camps at the age of thirteen. Descendants of the survivors extending to the third generation as well as from those that had emigrated in the twentieth century visit regularly and constituted the demographic of the attendees to the anniversary. 

FORERUNNERS TO THE ROUNDING UP OF THE COMMUNITY. 

As early as 1936 discrimination began and there was a fascist anti - semitic campaign. Initially the discrimination was against “foreign” Jews who did not have Italian citizenship who were issued expulsion orders. Jews were forced to keep their shops open and work on the sabbath. All children had to have a fascist education. Jews could no longer teach or be in academia.The Rabbinical college was closed. Furthermore they were forced out of any government position including the army. As the pressure built up Mussolini appointed his son in law as Governor. He inflicted more and more economic hardship confiscating trade licenses and forcing the sale of businesses and shares at rock bottom prices. There were the racial purity laws making intermarriage a crime and generally outlawing everyday communication between the communities.

The thoroughness of the round up can be put down to the fact that the Italian Royal Secret Police had compiled a detailed list of each and every family. In addition there are letters and photos in the recently discovered files. The whole heinous deed could not have been effected without the cooperation of them and the local administration.

Hitler and Mussolini had paid one another reciprocal visits and the Italian’s entry into the war in June 1940 was a further cause for consternation. German troops were stationed in Greece and the Dodecanese Islands. In October 1943 a highly ranked Secret Field Officer was transferred to Rhode Island .On July 13, 1944 the head of the German Garrison gave the order for the round up. All but about a hundred and fifty of the over two thousand from Rhodes and Kos survived. 

The marches, sea and rail transport and detentions were marked by brutality, torture and beatings by the captors on an unimaginable scale. For example on the thirteen day train trip from the Concentration Camp in Greece to Auschwitz forty died. Periodically the journey was halted to throw the dead out.

THE WEEK LONG MEMORIAL OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOLOCAUST OF RHODES AND KOS.

Besides the memorial services in the Rhodes synagogue, at the Rhodes and Kos Cemeteries, and at Martyrs’ Square Rhodes, several other events were held. Many of the activities were centered around the old Jewish Quarter in the Old City including the Kal Shalom Synagogue which includes offices and a museum. A two and a half hour walking tour featured all the old landmarks. Many of the houses are now occupied by poor sections of the Island’s community. Those buildings that lined the streets are now shops and restaurants which are visited by tens of thousands of tourists annually. Nearby the Synagogue is a fountain where the victims were coralled. At the square is a recently erected Holocaust Memorial  where a wreath laying ceremony took place. The area has been renamed Martyrs' Square by the local authorities.

Amongst the events was a march on the route that the victims took to the docks at the Rhodes harbor and the sea trip that the Kos hundred undertook to join their brethren in Rhodes.

The various services were attended by Greek dignitories. the Imam of Turkey, a Bishop from the Greek Orthodox Church as well as a representative of the German Embassy in Athens. The latter expressed remorse and sorrow and outlined the efforts that her Government was making to fight the current resurgence of anti - semitism. A prominent Greek journalist berated officialdom at not doing enough in this regard.  

While there were many poignant moments to reflect on a few stood out. Watching the wreath cast in the water at the site where the future concentration attendees entered the cargo ship, slowly float away until it became a speck in the vast ocean was one. Another was the realization that the unpleasant long bumpy sea trip between Kos and Rhodes in a well fitted boat made the attendees reflect on the indescribably traumatic journey the terrified brutalized community undertook. (The fact that Germany was on its last and racial genocide was the agenda when these enormities took place was epitomized by the delay of five days in proceeding to the gas chambers due to fuel shortage),

There was a day long seminar on the research being done on the subject of the Holocaust. Topics spanned the vast archives that were available to research the atrocities, the archeology being conducted of the destruction across Europe, the testimony of survivors and their descendants and the coping of the guilt and anger of the descendants. Many of the latter were bearing witness to the memorials at the cemetery more than aware that had their forefathers not been one of the one hundred and fifty that survived or one of the four thousand that had left the Islands before the war, they would not have been there either. 

OUT OF THE HOLOCAUST CAME HOPE.

There are the inspiring stories of hope and humanity that are also the legacy of this dark period - Anne Frank’s Diary, Elie Wiesel The Nobel Laureate for Peace who has advocated for humanity, Viktor Frankel who became a Founder of Modern Positive Psychology and the many sung and unsung heroes of this travesty of civilization.

While many non Jews collaborated as the scholarly work by Daniel Goldhagen in his book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” indicated, there were many who risked all to fight against this barbarism. Some are known through movies and novels such as the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved tens of thousands and Oskar Schindler who was immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s epic “Schindler’s List”. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel has an extensive data base of nearly thirty thousand individuals from fifty - one nations in their project entitled “The Righteous Among Nations”. While none listed appear to have intervened directly in Rhodes Island there are six hundred and ninety - four Italians who have been recognized. In Rhodes itself the Muslim Grand Mufti hid the Torah Scrolls of the Synagogue so they would not fall into the hands of the Nazis.

In spite of all the mounting evidence of the holocaust, the museums erected and school education there is also a growing trend to deny, distort and to even vilify those who remember.

ANTISEMITISM AND HOLOCAUST DENIAL IN 2019

In the last decade the world has witnessed an escalation of anti - semitism. Former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Sacks, has bitterly commented that he never imagined that in the shadow of the Holocaust the specter of race hate of the Jews would rise again. There is statistic upon statistic illustrating the increase in hate crimes, desecration and attacks against the Jews. Sacks has argued that anti semitism is like a virus that mutates. In the Inquisition and through the ages it was based on religion, while following World War One its rationale was on the basis of race and now it is centered on the nation state of Israel. So now the Jews have become the Nazis and the Palestinians the Jews. While no one can but have empathy for the Palestinian citizens it is almost facile to relay the fact that their leaders and Arab nations have refused to create a state since the decision of the United Nations in 1947 to form two nations in the then Palestine. There have been wars and intifadas to reclaim the whole area. Ironically the moderate leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement Mohammed Abbas’s University thesis was denial that the Holocaust ever occured. 

The objective between the unholy alliance between countries such as Iran, terror groups such as ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah, on College Campuses, the selective morality of the United Nations and left and right wing groups has not been to disagree with the policies of Israel but rather to question its existence. Also there is criticism of the remembrance of the Holocaust. The argument being that the Jews and Israel are using it to perpetrate their racism. Once again, even in America, it is argued that Jewish money controls the world.

THE SURREAL AURA SURROUNDING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREEK ISLAND HOLOCAUST 

To anyone who has read about the horrors of The Final Solution such as the sheer insanity reflected in Elie Wiesel’s “The Night” attending such memorial events have a surreal aura of normality surrounding them. There is inevitably a mask of deep denial that each and everyone is uncomfortably behind. For on this solemn occasion there is also a joyous reunion of families and friends that have not seen each other for varying periods of time. There is the sumptuous dining of Rhodes, the beaches, the local wares all at low prices….. 

However every now and then lurking into the conscious is the fact that on the anniversary march to the dock there was no separation of men, women and children. That after watching the wreath float into the distance there was a return from the port. That after attending the memorial services at the Kos and Rhodes cemeteries there was a painful awareness that the victims were not buried there but probably lie in the fields of ashes at Birkenau or in an exhibition at Auschwitz.  

But at the end of the day there is hope. There has been progress and giant strides in humanism since the end of the Second World War. Remembrance also serves as a warning that the genocide had an incremental history which was ignored. It never began with the cattle cars. 

There are lessons too to learn from the Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel who never forgot yet established a  Foundation of Humanity. He believed fervently in equality, waging countless battles for innocent victims regardless of ethnicity or creed. He had indefinable qualities and empathy. He is quoted in Howard Reich’s book, "The Invention of Hope" as refusing to ever humiliate anyone. Wiesel gives as an example the time he recognized in the streets of Israel the Jewish Kapo that oversaw him in the concentration camp. In spite of the anger that welled in him he didn’t call him out as that would have humiliated him and it was his principle never to humiliate anyone....... 

2019 WIMBLEDON, THE PRINCESS AND THE GOATS

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club established in 1868 has grown in stature and reverence to reach almost religious proportions as epitomized by the designation of its Center Tennis Court as “The Cathedral”. To the tennis cognoscenti their annual championship is the Super Bowl of the tennis year. To the players it is the trophy that they covet the most. Every winner will wistfully relate that they, from the moment they picked up a tennis racket, fantasized “this moment”. The 2019 All England Championship played on the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon was the fairy tale of the three 2019 GOATS, (Greatest Of All Time), that depending on whom one supports didn’t necessarily end happily after.

THE MAGIC OF WIMBLEDON

 Wimbledon’s manicured grass playing arenas besides representing the ultimate test of skill is the home of British tradition, innovation and in this day and age some of the rituals bordering on pretentiousness. If Rome fed the masses bread and gladiatorial contests the English, with their royalty also in the box, offer outrageously expensive strawberries and cream served with champagne. Nobody who is sitting in or around the royal box will dare to be dressed in anything but a tie and a suit. Even John McEnroe three time winner and super brat in his day, now a tennis commentator extra ordinaire sits in his bunker commentary box squashed in sweating in a tie and suit.

 Everything about the championship is so unique. Even the coin that is used to decide who will serve first in the finals has been in space. It is pure gold and been ferried to the international space station and back. Such is the reverence invested in every moment of the Championship match.

Wimbledon is representative of privilege. To become a member is not easy to put it mildly. There are only three hundred and seventy - five full members. The only way a plebeian like you and Jay H. Ell could become an honorary member would be to win a Championship or marry a prince or princess. Members are given a bunch of tickets each and if they sold them they would not have to do a day’s work. Notwithstanding that the crowds spend the night in line to either get one of the few tickets that are allocated to the unwashed or failing that an opportunity to squat with others in front of the gigantic screen that features the play on Henman Hill, so named after a Brit who was their vain white hope for almost a decade to win the trophy for the British Isles.

At the end of the day the Monarchy, this year represented by Prince William’s good lady, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge aka known as Kate Middleton, rather than give a thumbs up or down to the vanquished hands, over the trophy with an obsequious smile while exuding noblesse oblige and offering sympathy to the loser. All this and the 2019 Wimbledon featuring the three greatest players the game has ever seen - all at the top of their game. 

Wimbledon too creates its own hierarchy among the players because Championship winners are not only made honorary members, (they not kings and queens you know eligible for full membership), are afforded their own facilities in the hallowed ground.

Not since Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player dominated the other individual sport, golf, in the sixties have three sportsmen simultaneously shared the world stage with their rivalry being the focus of sport lovers.  

THE GOATS BEFORE IT STARTED.

All three of the tennis Greatest of All Time, (GOATS) have distinct styles and personalities. Between them they have won fourteen of the last sixteen championships. Firstly there is Roger Federer, the Gentleman, who epitomizes the All England ethos, is in championship grand slam titles The current GOAT. At the unprecedented age of thirty - eight years he is the unchallenged favorite of the crowd. He has charmed and entertained them for close on two decades with the artistry and the brilliance of a Rudolph Nureyev and the nuance of a Daniel Day Lewis. He is imperturbable processing the rare attribute to forget near misses and sets that he should have won.The Swiss maestro leads too in Wimbledon trophies. He has effected the victory lap with the golden prize held aloft a staggering eight times before the start of the 2019 trial. If there is tennis royalty Federer is it. 

Not far behind in major championship cups is the Spaniard Rafael Nadal who has eighteen scalps to the leader’s twenty. He is characterized by sheer physicality and endurance of an Arnold Schwartzenegger. While not processing the charm of his lifelong rival nevertheless his sportsmanship is acknowledged by all and sundry. He owes his position in the GOAT rankings to his total dominance on the hard clay court of Roland Garros in Paris. He has notched eleven of his eighteen laurels on a surface that is only utilized in a tiny corner of the world. Just prior to this encounter he beat Federer on clay in France.  Like all three of the elite he has dominated for stretches winning twice at Wimbledon, once in Australia and three times on the slower American Forest Hills Court. 

The seeded number one GOAT in world rankings at this point in time is the Serbian Novak Djokovic the youngest of the three who has won three of the last four major championships. If the Serbian is to be characterized he plays like a computer. Not flashy at all but exhibiting the most remarkable shot playing propensity cracking winners of services that otherwise would be aces to any other player. However on occasion the computer misfires and he has lulls in his inexplicably high almost mechanical high standards. His mother says the only matches he loses are in his head. He is closing in on the other two with fifteen notches to his belt when 2019 Wimbledon begun.

 As much as Federer is loved on the world scene Novak is ignored. He thrives on being the underdog with the fans. While fortunes change and injuries often occur in these sophisticated athletes who are as finally tuned as thoroughbred racehorses, the future is his as the other two must exit the world scene sooner or later.

2019 - THE YEAR OF THE GOATS

The contest rolled on to a close at the two week mark and as expected the three GOATS ambled into the semi finals. All had been equally impressive. Federer having the toughest road knocking out ceded players all the while including Nishikori the number eight in the quarter finals. He then had to meet his old rival Nadal who is on a roll this year as is Roger. The former had narrowly beat him in the 2008 Final in what was then the longest and finest Championship event ever. This time out the eight time Wimbledon Champion handily accounted for Nadal in four sets. Novak had a far easier time of it knocking out surprise semi finalist Roberta Bautista Agut. The stage was set for the two remaining GOATS to battle it out.

The oddsmakers made Djokovic firm favorite to capture his fifth Wimbledon trophy and his sixteenth major title and they were proved barely right. In a ding dong battle in what became the longest Wimbledon final ever, close on five hours of sheer poetry in motion, the more fancied GOAT won by the narrowest of margins in a tiebreaker in the fifth and final set. It was a heart wrenching defeat as in the final set the tennis geriatric Federer had two Championship Points that he failed to capitalize on. 

The amazing feature of this fight to the death was the level of play of the two ccmbatants. Federer had raised his game to a new level to counter the methodical Watson computer like activity of his rival. His service was that much better as was his net play while the improvement of his backhand was a joy to behold. But by the rub of the green it was not enough. Magnanimous in defeat he served notice that the fat lady had not yet sung and that he was still competitive in the most prestigious arenas in world tennis.

NEXT TIME OUT FOR THE GOATS

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will all meet again at Flushing Meadow in the US Open, the final grand slam of the year. This is the surface other than clay that Nadal has had the most success but Jay H. Ell has little doubt that Novak will again start overwhelming favorite. While the friendship between the two GOATS Rafa and Roger will continue, the former has agreed to an exhibition match with Federer in Cape Town South Africa on February 7, 2020 in aid of Federer’s Foundation which supports the underserved on the African continent, there is really little love lost between them and Novak who just lacks in his demeanor that which he manifests with his racket.

AT THE END OF THE DAY.

Everyone still talks of the triumvirate of golf GOATS who also spanned two and a half decades starting in the sixties and ending in the eighties. Nicklaus was undoubtedly THE GOAT as he won eighteen majors to Player’s nine and Palmer’s seven. Their domination didn’t remotely approximate these tennis giants who between them have won more than half of the last sixty major grand slams. The current tennis threesome are going to end up vey close to each other and that is the way they will be remembered. No need to just label one of them. So Federer fans like Jay H. Ell needn’t go into therapy following this year’s nail biter. 

Wimbledon Center Court will be dug up and preparation will start for the 2020 Championship. Nine tons of grass seed is utilized to renew the surface. It is almost funny that the initial focus of the Club was on croquet that quaint English past time where with a wooden mallet you try to hit the wooden ball through a wire arch. The sports stadium has withstood the test of time including being bombed in World War Two. While hugging tradition and custom, for example in this age of burgeoning sponsorship the participants can still only don white gear, the institution is as British as the monarchy and Buckingham Palace, innovation has not been neglected. The Club was the first to introduce movable roofs on both Center Court and Court One in the case of rain. 

As for Roger his behavior is more British than the British being in sync with Rudyard Kipling’s quote which is inscribed above the Players’ entrance, “…. If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters the same……”.

What a joyful distraction this was making a for a welcome change in a world so punctuated with gloomy news.

TRUMP - IS CRUELTY A WINNING STRATEGY?

Donald J. Trump attempts to totally dominate the media. This pursuit is reflective of his naked narcissism, his anxiety at his legal jeopardy and most significantly his need to have a megaphone for his policies in his re election campaign. His central thesis is to change America’s liberal democratic political system into an authoritarian nationalistic militaristic and racist entity. To reinforce his leadership role in this undertaking The Donald will sink to any low including enabling cruelty on children. 

Trump’s “Salute to America” on Independence Day, with its “uplifting vision”, was sacrilegious and the height of cynicism. His pious “patriotic” message coincided with his callous indifference to the plight of the innocents and vulnerable in the detention centers. Their plight has been brought into focus by damning evidence from pediatricians and a recent sixteen page report from the Inspector General of his own Department of Homeland Affairs. In the latter the border situation has been likened to a “time bomb” due to the inhumane conditions the detainees and especially “the minors” are laboring under. 

TRUMP’S GRAND PLAN INCLUDES CHILD ABUSE?

The POTUS has many initiatives to effect his overall game plan, including attacking the Judicial system and institutions, ostentatiously ignoring Congress, appointing an Attorney General who acts like a third world lackey in using the law to perform his boss’s bidding, and executing an array of maneuvers to keep America white. The battleground for the latter effort is the Southern Border where the growing number of desperate amnesty seekers have amassed. 

Trump has exacerbated the refugee problem which has festered for decades as opposed to creating a climate for a comprehensive solution to immigration. The hazardous trip across Central America has been magnified by anarchy and crime. He has gambled that by allowing cruel and oppressive treatment of the refugees his actions will bolster his strong man image. 

The crisp point is that Donald Trump must believe that cruelty is a winning strategy. In response to the oppressive and cruel conditions at the border he glibly maintains with his customary conviction, that it is the fault of the Democrats. His bland disinterest in this catastrophe forced a questioning news anchor, Chuck Todd, to scream at the President of the USA ,“DO SOMETHING!”. Todd stopped short of accusing Trump of enabling child abuse. 

THE UNFOLDING OF TRUMP’S  POLICIES ON IMMIGRANTS THAT ARE NOT WHITE

Immigrants who are not white have been central to the Trump initiative to  “Make America Great Again”. The Donald announced his candidature for Presidency by defaming Mexicans as criminals, gang members and rapists. This racism was preceded by a years long birther smear of President Obama which was code for maintaining the President of America did not belong in America. His wholesale attack on Muslims even entering the country was a theme he returned to again and again on his road to the Presidency.

Donald Trump does not pretend to be nuanced.  He believes that the forty year old chaotic lack of Immigration policy can be exploited to his advantage. While everybody agrees that America cannot let the whole of South America into the Republic, the question is whether society is prepared to abandon every value that they have ever aspired to in order to resolve this crisis. The fact that the outcome of the centerpiece of his immigration policy is in the garbage bin, namely that Mexico would pay for a beautiful wall, does not fuzz the POTUS. He now is upping the ante in outlandishness by enabling cruelty at the border. 

Trump recently added three additions to his immigration policy of facilitating “cruelty and illegality” at the border. He would conduct raids on millions of “illegal immigrant families”, throw out the “illegal families” of members of the armed forces and withdraw translators from the border court hearings.

THE NARRATIVE CHANGES WITH OBJECTIVE REPORTS FROM HIS OWN ADMINISTRATION AND INDEPENDENT PEDIATRICIANS

The most crushing condemnation of conditions at the detention centers emanated from  Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. Their central thesis supported the allegation that cruelty and the breaking of the law was a feature of the treatment meted out to the detainees. In addition there have been the heartbreaking analyses of the mistreatment of children by independent pediatricians.

Of course there have been months of media and politicians’ reportage of children separated from their parents in detention centers which have been labelled “concentration camps”.  In addition there have been deaths of children in  custody. The Trump Administration in spite of being instructed  by the courts to reunite families has stated that they are unable to do so. In a recent Federal Court Case the Judge impressed incredulity when those representing the Government refused to concede that soap, toothpaste and washing were basic human needs. 

The narratives on the overcrowded unsanitary “cages”, where children are being detained like cattle was alleged by the Democrat Members of Congress, whose criticisms were smeared as political. They described the unsavory circumstances of all detainees including women who were forced to drink latrine water. The unhealthiness and the monotony of the meals had been a common complaint related to the legislators. The Congresspeople battled to obtain access and to this day are unable to take pictures of what they see.

As knowledge of the crowded cages leaked, then echoed by visiting pediatricians and in an official Inspector General Report from Homeland Security, the public outcry has become louder and louder.

After months of report after report detailing the inhumane and dangerous circumstances of the detainees, the POTUS tweeted that “…. many of the immigrants  are living in far better circumstances than where they came form and in far safer conditions…”

VISITS BY PEDIATRICIANS TO THE “CAGES” WHERE CHILDREN ARE HELD

The incoming President of the American Academy of Pediatricians claimed that as she walked into the overcapacity cages what immediately struck her was the stench of feces, urine and sweat emanating from the hordes of children lying on concrete floors. They were covered with crinkled aluminum paper. She noted that a baby was being fed from an unwashed bottle. The children were fearful and withdrawn obviously suffering from psychological trauma.

A local pediatrician, Dr. Dolly Servier who visited a detention center which like all others was filled with distrusting humanity and numbers way above the limit deemed to be safe. She tersely proclaimed that the thousands of children are legally only allowed to be detained for seventy - two hours but that this law was being flagrantly disobeyed.

Dr. Servier observed a seventeen year old who had to fashion clothes for a four month old baby with two diapers. Her task was made all the more challenging by the babies’s persistent diarrhea. She recorded that a fifteen month old was drinking out of the same dirty bottle that he had been using for days. She attempted to involve the children by giving them Mickey Mouse toys to play with. When she took them away there was no resistance which sign is an indication of trauma of one or other sort.  She summed up the situation by diagnosing malnutrition, illness and trauma. Signs of illness in children are sometimes difficult to detect necessitating the need for trained medical care, Dr. Servier warned. 

Another group of pediatricians who were managing young children who had been finally released assessed their drawings of their experiences. Almost every impression was of children peering through wired cages.

A Trump statement  - “Border officials are not hospital workers, doctors or nurses”.

INSPECTOR GENERAL OF HOMELAND SECURITY’S REPORT ON OVERCROWDING AND LONGTERM DETENTION AT BORDER FACILITIES.

As a result of the Administrative abuses in the Watergate era an Act was passed for independent overseers to be appointed to certain Departments. Amendments to this provision were unanimously updated in Congress in 2002. 

The current Acting Head of the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Homeland Security is Ms. Jennifer Costello. The latter previously had investigated on behalf of the taxpayers a host of matters involving fraud and deception of the public. She is a certified fraud examiner. It was under her aegis that a damning sixteen page report was released on conditions in the Government detention centers in Texas.

The “Family Section” of the report indicates that thirty - seven thousand families were apprehended between October 2017 and May 2018. That number increased by two hundred and seventy percent in the same period a year later. Ms Costello relates, while there was no evidence that the untenable situation was as a direct result of intentional actions, very little if anything had been done to ameliorate the subhuman environment.

The Inspector General communique contained a slew of photographs that illustrated the conditions as they have been described by all and sundry. Ms. Costello warned that the situation was “a time bomb… the overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS officers and agents and to those detained”.

 Illustrative of the Inspector General's narrative were statements such as that there was squalid conditions, minors going without hot meals for days and detainees begging not to be returned to their cells. Three of the five facilities had no showers for the children. Most of those detained had been given only cleaning wipes. Migrants reported that they were force fed on bologna sandwiches which caused constipation severe enough to require medical intervention. 

In addition there were more than two thousand five hundred unaccompanied minors who had been held, against the law, for more than seventy - two hours. Adults were not supposed to be held in custody for more than twenty days, which law was ignored. 

There are sixteen pages of this nauseating shameful report which is on line for those who require more details of the inhumane conditions under which these asylum seekers are suffering. 

Another Trump statement that followed the report is indicative of his purposeful neglect of the situation and is again probative of his desire to exploit this situation for political purposes - “If illegal immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built detention centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved”.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

While Trump highjacked the normally apolitical Independence Day Celebrations, with his tanks and talk of Make America Great Again, juxtaposed was a violation of human rights being perpetuated by the United States which ranks worse than the detention of Japanese Americans during World War Two. 

The “Immigration Problem” has been festering for decades and no one can sanction the current laws. The uncertainty of the eleven million undocumented persons in America as well as what should be enacted with regard to future immigration needs to be urgently addressed. Trump’s response to this existential problem is to cruelly exacerbate a humanity crisis on the border in the belief that it will bolster his re election. 

All those contemplating to reelect Trump should be mindful of the fact that they he is someone who sanctions cruelty to children. As for the Republican Congresspeople they are not only complicit they are enabling this infamy. They will have to answer to history.