Here's How the Syrian Refugee Crisis Sounds a Lot Like the Holocaust

It's probably pretty unimaginable to think that in the 1930s when thousands of Jews wanted to escape Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany, many countries, including the U.S., denied them entry. In hindsight, especially after Nazi Germany slaughtered approximately 11 million people, 6 million of them Jews, we now know that was a mistake. If we could have saved just one more child, teen, or family, it's hard to imagine that any American or politician, then or now, would have turned them away. That's why the recent reactions to the Syrian refugee crisis in the wake of the Paris attacks is so shocking. We've been here before and our inaction cost many their lives in some of the most unspeakable ways. If you're well versed in Nazi Germany and the Syrian Civil War, then you know there are marked differences between the two situations. However, some of the words and phrases that are being used to describe the Syrian refugees — by some people who want to be our next president — are eerily similar. Luckily, though, most Americans can see through the hate.

1. Donald Trump Wants Muslims to Carry Special IDs and Track Them All

On Thursday, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told Yahoo News! that he would “look closely” into having all Muslim Americans carry special IDs; he also told MSNBC that he would implement a database to track all Muslims in the United States. Before the beginning of World War II, Nazi policy would require Jews to wear a yellow badge as special identification for their Jewish faith in order to keep track of them, too.

2. Ben Carson Compares Syrian Refugees With Rabid Dogs

After a campaign stop in Alabama while talking to reporters, another Republican candidate, Ben Carson, compared Syrian refugees to rabid dogs. "If there is a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably gonna put your children out of the way. Doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination," he said.

In Nazi Germany, it was common practice to call Jews anything from ants to mouses, scum to monkeys, and pigs to apes. Jews were regularly called the most gut-wrenching and horrifying names, and comparing them to animals was commonplace. If history has proven anything over the years, it’s that words and depictions really do matter and are at the root of almost all great bloodsheds. From the Holocaust to the Rwandan Genocide, let’s make sure these ugly comparisons don't happen again.

3. A Democratic Mayor Praised Japanese Internment Camps For His Justification of Refusing Refugees

David Bowers, the Democratic mayor of Roanoke Valley, Virginia, released a statement requesting all agencies to stop assisting refugees settling in his town — but he did so by praising Franklin Delano Roosevelt for putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps.

He wrote: "I'm reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then."

As a Japanese-American Muslim, this haunts and frightens me about the future climate of our country. Not only were 120,000 Japanese-Americans forcefully taken out of their homes and put into internment camps, this was also a similar practice held by Nazi Germany as they propped up several concentration camps where millions of innocent Jews were tortured and eventually murdered.

4. The House Votes to Restrict Entry to Syrian Refugees

On Thursday, an overwhelming majority of representatives (289 to 137) voted to make an exponentially tougher screening process for refugees coming into the United States despite veto threats from the White House. Meanwhile, two other U.S. senators and presidential candidates, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, are drafting bills that would halt visas for certain refugees, and only allow Christian ones into the United States. First, it's pretty firmly been debunked now that one of the terrorists in the Paris attacks was a Syrian refugee, second, moments like this will be marked down as another ugly legislative moment of U.S. history.

In February 1939, Congress rejected a bill to accept 20,000 Jewish refugees. In several instances, the U.S. turned away ships filled with Jewish refugees fleeing persecution only for them to return back to Germany and endure the Holocaust. Many of those passengers ended up dying. A lot of the rejection then stemmed from fear that the Nazis were using refugees to infiltrate the United States as spies.

Even the U.S. Holocaust Museum has spoken up. In a statement on Thursday, the museum said, "Acutely aware of the consequences to Jews who were unable to flee Nazism, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum looks with concern upon the recent refugee crisis."

5. Most Americans Don’t Want Refugees Coming Into the United States

The discovery of a (now known to be fake) Syrian passport caused many to initially believe one of the Paris attackers was a Syrian refugee, though later investigation revealed they were all European nationals. This launched widespread hysteria across the country making people fearful that refugees entering the country will bring along terrorism threats.

Giving into irrational fear and hate, a majority of American adults polled — 53% — do not want refugees to settle in the United States, according to a poll conducted by Bloomberg Politics. It’s pretty clear that the basis of this reasoning are from fear from another terrorist attack, anti-Muslim sentiment, and maybe for some, it’s about the crippling economy. Regardless, the anti-refugee sentiment isn’t new and was certainly alive in the United States right before the start of World War II.

In July 1938, Fortune magazine published a poll where 67.4 percent of Americans believed Jewish refugees should be kept out of the United States. The reasoning behind the high percentage isn’t entirely known, but the U.S. was just finally getting out of the Great Depression, where anti-immigrant settlement was surging due to lack of employment opportunities. However, some pundits believe that the main reason why many refused to accept the Jews had to do with anti-semitism and bigotry. Something that has become way too familiar for Muslims fleeing bloodshed in the Syrian War.

Related: A Teen Syrian Refugee Carried His Puppy 300 Miles to Safety

Check out Teen Vogue’s December/January issue cover star, Fernanda Ly.