Culver City Councilmember on Homelessness: “Marching People Off to Concentration Camps in Palmdale Is Not a Solution”

Culver City Councilmember Alex Fisch is under fire for comparing homeless shelters in Palmdale to concentration camps during a June 29 candidate forum.

The forum, which was held virtually by the Culver City Democratic Club, featured Fisch saying in response to a question about how the candidates would deal with homelessness: “Marching people off to concentration camps in Palmdale is not a solution. It’s not moral and it’s not the Democratic Party way of doing things.”

In a letter to the editor published in the Culver City Observer, a person named Jamie Wallace wrote that “Fisch had an opportunity at the July 11th City Council meeting but did not make any remark or expression of regret after it was raised by people during public comment. In an email, Mr. Fisch wrote that he was referring to other people talking about moving the unhoused from their current locations to other area facilities such as Palmdale where it might be less expensive to build. Mr. Fisch responded in another written note that he was talking about law-enforcement actions to move the unhoused to other places.” 

Wallace also noted that Fisch’s defenders online have claimed “that ‘concentration camps’ do not always refer to Nazi killing centers, but any ‘concentration’ of people such as the Japanese internment camps in the United States.” Wallace called this a “deflection.” “’Marching people off to concentration camps in Palmdale,’ is a clear reference to Nazi atrocities,” Wallace wrote. “No one, city councilmember, candidate or not, should have said this unless they meant to be offensive. Any attempt to soft-peddle this inexcusable statement minimizes the death and suffering of the Nazi’s victims.”

The Common Sense Culver City Political Action Committee similarly wrote on their website that “by equating law enforcement-first solutions with Nazis and Internment officers, Alex Fisch not only demonizes the police, he cheapens the atrocities committed against those murdered and interred.” The PAC also argued that the concentration camp analogy is “harmful to people experiencing homelessness and those trying to help them. It strips their personal stories and struggles leading to life on the street, and instead rewrites them as victims of an ideology of evil.”

Jewish groups denounced Fisch’s remarks.

“Whether or not the councilmember was directly linking policy around homelessness to the Holocaust or the internment of Japanese-Americans, responsible elected officials should avoid such inappropriate and hyperbolic comparisons,” Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles Senior Associate Regional Director Matthew Friedman said in a statement to the Journal. “We can have discussions around difficult questions without invoking ‘concentration camps’ or other analogies. We know that the councilmember has done this in the past, and we hope that he will be more careful in the future.”

American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Director Richard S. Hirschhaut also said in a statement to the Journal, “Culver City Councilmember Alex Fisch had an opportunity during last week’s City Council meeting to clean up his ill-advised comments about ‘marching people off to concentration camps in Palmdale.’ Regrettably, through obfuscation, deflection, and perceived annoyance, he fumbled. Badly. Regardless of his supposed intention, the words he used, and apparently has doubled down on, have no place in public discourse. Invoking Nazi-era analogies cheapens their historical significance and does nothing to advance meaningful public policy. We encourage Mr. Fisch to accept responsibility, apologize, and make the most of this ‘teachable moment.’”

Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper also told the Journal that Fisch’s use of “Holocaust imagery” only “insults the past [and] does nothing to help address the ongoing humanitarian crisis across US.”

StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, said in a statement to the Journal: “The term concentration camps brings up painful collective memories for the Jewish people, and should never be used indiscriminately to describe situations like the one regarding homeless people in Palmdale. We have a responsibility to be careful with words and phrases so that they do not enter every day vernacular and degrade or trivialize the meaning of the terms. ‘Concentration camp’ does not mean where people are ‘concentrated.’ They were used by the Nazis for years to enslave, torture and murder Jews and others who did not meet the Nazi ‘ideal race requirements.’”

Stop Antisemitism tweeted to Fisch: “At a time when our country needs dialogue, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel. Words matter, do better!”

NO Alex Fisch (@AlexFischCC), homeless shelters are NOT comparable to concentration camps.

At a time when our country needs dialogue, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel.

Words matter, do better!https://t.co/6CXMTKqHPK

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 18, 2022

Fisch responded that he “wasn’t comparing homeless shelters to camps. I was responding to the growing calls for law enforcement-only and eliminationist approaches to homelessness. You see them in social media and I’ve heard them straight from people’s mouths while canvassing. As someone who has personally experienced antisemitism, and as the descendent of a family that was intentionally extirpated from Galicia, I didn’t choose my words carelessly. I am obligated to stand with the vulnerable—houseless people—against relatively powerful persecutors.” He acknowledged that the language he used was “charged” but argued that it was necessary because “there are so many people winking at involuntary confinement of people who are already regularly dehumanized. Is that the same as the Holocaust? Of course not. Is it the same as Japanese internment? Closer, and fundamentally about dehumanization.” Fisch also linked to a 2019 article from The Forward discussing the use of the term “concentration camps” in regards to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

I wasn’t comparing homeless shelters to camps. I was responding to the growing calls for law enforcement-only and eliminationist approaches to homelessness. You see them in social media and I’ve heard them straight from people’s mouths while canvassing. 1/2

— Alex Fisch (@AlexFischCC) July 18, 2022

As someone who has personally experienced antisemitism, and as the descendent of a family that was intentionally extirpated from Galicia, I didn’t choose my words carelessly. I am obligated to stand with the vulnerable—houseless people—against relatively powerful persecutors. 2/2

— Alex Fisch (@AlexFischCC) July 18, 2022

It was charged language, yes. But there are so many people winking at involuntary confinement of people who are already regularly dehumanized. Is that the same as the Holocaust? Of course not. Is it the same as Japanese internment? Closer, and fundamentally about dehumanization.

— Alex Fisch (@AlexFischCC) July 18, 2022

I appreciate your constructive engagement. I’ve spent a lot of time, both in 2019 when a similar controversy was in national headlines and recently, reflecting on this piece from Forward. I link this not to say that I’m “right,” but to add nuance. https://t.co/sMVagkd8WT

— Alex Fisch (@AlexFischCC) July 18, 2022

UPDATE:  Democrats for Israel Los Angeles President Gregg Solkovits said in a statement to the Journal that Fisch’s remarks “were not a Nazi or Holocaust comparison — as someone who is of partially Jewish descent and who has worked with the Jewish community on Democratic Party issues, he would know not to do that. Councilman Fisch made a concentration camp comparison describing how some homeless are being forcibly relocated to camps in the Antelope Valley away from the communities they lived in prior to becoming homeless.  Concentration camps have been used as a term to describe the Japanese-American experience during WWII and are also terms used to describe the experiences of Bosnians, Cambodians, South African Boers and others. It’s a term to be used with caution, but it is not the same as a Nazi or Holocaust reference.”

He added that Fisch “has stood with the Jewish community against proposed platform changes that would have removed references to Israel as a Jewish state. While he could have been more careful in his choice of words, we appreciate his work with our community and understand the points he was trying to make about the forced relocation of the homeless, placing them in camps in desolate areas far away from work opportunities and the communities they lived in before becoming homeless, as opposed to have them placed in supportive housing in their own communities.”