Suella Braverman Tells Holocaust Survivor She 'Won't Apologize' for 'Invasion' Comments

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Suella Braverman said she would not apologize for her language after a Holocaust survivor told the Home Secretary that her description of migrants as an 'invasion' was akin to the rhetoric the Nazis used to justify murdering her family.

Ms Braverman was confronted by Joan Salter, 83, at a meeting in her constituency of Fareham in Hampshire on Friday night.

Ms Salter, who was recognized with an MBE for her work on Holocaust education, compared Ms Braverman's rhetoric about migrants attempting to cross the Channel to the one used by the Nazis in World War II.

When I hear you using words against refugees like " swarms" and "invasion", it reminds me of the language used to dehumanize and justify the murder of my family and millions more

Holocaust survivor Joan Salter

In footage of the exchange, provided by the charity Freedom From Tortur e, Ms Salter said: "I am a child survivor of the Holocaust.

"In 1943 I was forced to flee my hometown in Belgium and traveled through war-torn Europe and dangerous seas until that I was finally able to come to the UK in 1947.

"When I hear you use anti-refugee words like 'swarms' and 'invasion', it reminds me of the language used to dehumanize and justify the murder of my family and millions of others.

"Why do you find the need to use this kind of language?"

Ms. Braverman thanked Ms. Salter for her question and said she "shares a great deal of concern and sympathy" at the "challenge" of illegal immigration, adding that her own parents were not born in Britain.

Speaking of his parents, Ms Braverman said: "They owe this country everything and taught me a deep and deep love of Britain and the British people.

"Their tolerance, their generosity, their decency, their fair play.

"It also means that we must not be afraid of saying there is a problem.

I will not apologize for the language I used to demonstrate the extent of the problem.

Suella Braverman, Home Secretary

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