Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-CortezReuters

A Holocaust survivor who had invited freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to visit concentration camps, following her use of the term to describe US detention centers for illegal immigrants, is now calling for Ocasio-Cortez’s removal from Congress.

Ed Mosberg, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor now living in New Jersey, is president of the From the Depths, an NGO working to increase Holocaust education.

Days after Ocasio-Cortez accused the US of operating “concentration camps”, Mosberg and From the Depths invited Ocasio-Cortez to tour Auschwitz.

It should be a requirement of all United States Congressmen to visit Auschwitz,” wrote Mosberg.

But Ocasio-Cortez turned down the invitation, and accused the “far-right” of ‘manipulating’ her controversial comments.

After the congresswoman doubled down on her comments comparing illegal immigration detention centers to concentration camps, Mosberg called for her removal from Congress.

“She should be removed from Congress,” Mosberg told The New York Post. “She’s spreading anti-Semitism, hatred and stupidity.”

Mosberg blasted Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison of detention centers to Holocaust-era concentration camps, saying people who compared the two are either “playing stupid” or “just don’t care” about the truth.

“The people on the border aren’t forced to be there — they go there on their own will. If someone doesn’t know the difference, either they’re playing stupid or they just don’t care.”

“Her statement is evil. It hurts a lot of people. At the concentration camp, we were not free. We were forced there by the Germans who executed and murdered people — there’s no way you can compare.”

She should be taught a lesson,” Mosberg continued. “If you’re not there, you will never know what happened. She doesn’t want to learn — she’s looking for excuses. I would like to nominate her for the Nobel Prize in stupidity.”

In response, a representative of Ocasio-Cortez told The Post that the congresswoman had distinguished between death camps and concentration camps.

“She made a distinction between a death camp and concentration camp. She’s been pretty outspoken about the issue.”

On June 18th, the 29-year-old congresswoman compared American detention centers for illegal immigrants to “concentration camps” and used the “Never Again” slogan to demand the closure of the detention centers.

"The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are," Ocasio-Cortez said in a lengthy live post on Instagram.

"The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it," she added, denouncing what she called the "authoritarian and fascist presidency" of Donald Trump.

"I don't use those words lightly," she added. "I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is."

"I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that 'never again' means something.”

Her comments sparked a firestorm of controversy, drawing criticism from many Jewish groups.