On the national news the other night, we watched the heartwarming, tearful reunion of two very old men, cousins, who survived the Nazi holocaust. They searched for 75 years to find relatives who had survived. One was living in England, the other in Israel. They hadn’t seen each other since they were children.
And so I wonder, will the babies and children separated from their families at our U.S. border ever find their mothers and fathers again? Will they ever be reunited?
These are parents who tried to bring their children to the safety of a new life, escaping different kinds of terror than the Nazi death camps, the terror of death threats, gang violence, rape and hunger.
To discourage more immigrants from fleeing similar terror, our U.S. government tears children from the only safety that they know, the arms of their family. This practice continues; we just pretend it came to an end. According to the ACLU, since the supposed ban on family separation last year, more than 900 children, many very young, have been separated.
Where are they? Some sent to family members, others lost in a system of jails, detention centers, group homes, foster care.
And so I wonder, will loved ones survive this system of planned terror that we have created, and will they ever be reunited?
DORIS HAMPTON
Canterbury
(The writer is the daughter of Holocaust survivors.)