In the Page A1 story Tuesday “President defiant as crisis grows, falsely blames Democrats,” we read two different perspectives on the children separated from their parents. The first perspective is an audio of “wailing children” and images “of young boys in detention center cages.”

The second perspective cites “the more positive photos that Trump aides have shown the president depicting detained children smiling, playing video games and exercising outside.”

I suspect both sides of the picture are somewhat accurate and inaccurate.

The president’s view reminds me of the videos I saw as a teenager (many years ago) of the Nazi propaganda machine. One video showed an orchestra playing soothing music as detainees were led into the compound and then directly to the gas chambers (this part was not shown). The other video was of Jewish children sitting at desks, with snacks, coloring in pleasant surroundings. Once the video finished, the children were no longer seen, presumably having been led to the gas chambers.

Many reports relate the forced separation of children from their families and the incarceration of the parents as reminiscent of the internment of Japanese-American citizens at the beginning of World War II. I agree, but I also feel that a case can be made that warehousing children in caged cells away from parents is reminiscent of Nazi treatment of Jews.

Richard Sauvageau

Naples

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