A concentration camp guard describes what it's like

[TygrBright]

From ProPublica: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children

Taking in the squalor, the stench of unwashed bodies, and the poor health and vacant eyes of the hundreds of children held there, the group members appeared stunned.

Then, their outrage rolled through the facility like a thunderstorm. One lawyer emerged from a conference room clutching her cellphone to her ear, her voice trembling with urgency and frustration. “There’s a crisis down here,” the agent recalled her shouting.

At that moment, the agent, a father of a 2-year-old, realized that something in him had shifted during his weeks in the McAllen center. “I don’t know why she’s shouting,” he remembered thinking. “No one on the other end of the line cares. If they did, this wouldn’t be happening.”

As he turned away to return to his duties, the agent recalled feeling sorry for the lawyer. “I wanted to tell her the rest of us have given up.”

The anonymous border patrol agent also describes the process of self-dehumanization they undertake, and what it looks like from inside:

“It’s kind of like torture in the army. It starts out with just sleep deprivation, then the next guys come in and sleep deprivation is normal, so they ramp it up. Then the next guys ramp it up some more, and then the next guys, until you have full blown torture going on. That becomes the new normal.”

and...

“Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal. That includes the people responsible for fixing the problems.”

There are more than 20,000 officers serving in Customs and Border Patrol. More than 9,000 of them participated in the "secret" Facebook groups where they mocked the people they are torturing, and the people expressing concern over what's going on.

It's very hard to imagine the path back from this hell for the rest of them.

somberly,
Bright

[brer cat]

1. "Somewhere down the line people just accept

what is going on as normal." Is that happening to us as a society? We on DU read, we search for truth, we are aware of what is going on, but I don't hear it in conversations around me. I don't watch television so I don't know what they are hearing but it bears no resemblance to what we post here. Where is there a path back when so much of our society is in denial, ignorant and even indifferent to what is being done in their name?

[lunatica]

8. We on DU have made a conscious choice not to allow ourselves to normalize

Trump’s behavior. We have refused to be lulled into accepting anything Trump and his people do, and we have helped each other do it so thank god we have this open forum. I can’t even imagine how things would be without DU. I’m guessing it’s the same for everyone here.

Other people probably keep sane through group support too.

I can’t imagine how horrible it must be for liberals surrounded by MAGATs in their families and communities. I do know quite a few of them come to DU regularly. This site keeps me sane, I know that.

[brer cat]

12. I live in a MAGAT area

and have them in my family. I have lost any hope that they will ever realize how ignorant they are about what is happening. Whatever trump does/says is ok with them. When I give them contrary facts, they say it is fake news or a liberal conspiracy. I don't know how we will ever get beyond this insanity when so many of the people are in total denial.

[lunatica]

17. I admire you for staying true to yourself

You’re seeing first hand what happens when people normalize horrible behavior! I wonder if I could be as strong as you are!

[alittlelark]

2. Wetigo.

“ "

[usaf-vet]

3. If memory serves me right, it took yrs for justice to catch up w/Nazi guards in concentration camp.

I hope that is the case with Trump and Trump's guards. I hope justice will eventually catch up to them.

[TygrBright]

4. "I really needed to protect my pension"

...said the railroad engineer, making sure the trains to Auschwitz ran on time.

sourly,
Bright

[lunatica]

10. Most Nazis were never caught or brought to justice.

Even many high officials got away with their crimes.

Netflix has a documentary called Prosecuting Evil: Ben Ferencz.

He was the prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials. It’s exceptional and well worth watching just to get to know this little giant of a man.

At the end of the documentary he says the Americans failed to pursue any of the rest of the Nazi criminals. They disappeared into normal life, except for those sought and caught by the Israelis.

[TygrBright]

15. And those given cushy jobs in weapons research by the American military. n/t

[dchill]

5. "Ramping it up" is why sleep deprivation...

IS full-blown torture.

[SharonAnn]

6. We already know this from Abu Ghraib

There’s something about imprisoning “the other” that can bring out the worst in us.

[questionseverything]

7. what is happening now is a direct result of not punishing those responsible for that horror

[BeckyDem]

13. +1

[ancianita]

9. Boo hoo. No sympathy for cowards who suffer for causing suffering by following orders.

[lostnfound]

14. No sympathy but a need to understand elements of human nature

Point of this is, how can society create barriers to evil? Can some of the would-be guards be turned back to humanity so that light is shed on what’s happening and the truth comes out?

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Nuremberg tribunals for all of them

Out of 20,000, there will be enough to cooperate rather than go to jail.

[babylonsister]

16. Why do the guards feel compelled to torture

these people? Have they been ordered to do so, or is this part and parcel of their self-dehumanization?