A Democratic U.S. House representative escalated her criticisms of Wyoming Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney on Wednesday after comparing detention facilities for illegal immigrants to the Nazi concentration camps before and during World War II.

Tuesday, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted, "This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying. This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis."

Ocasio-Cortez later added, "And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps. Concentration camps are considered by experts as 'the mass detention of civilians without trial.' And that’s exactly what this administration is doing."


Ocasio-Cortez retorted, "Hey Rep. Cheney, since you’re so eager to 'educate me,' I’m curious: What do YOU call building mass camps of people being detained without a trial? How would you dress up DHS’s mass separation of thousands children at the border from their parents?"

Cheney responded, "Happy to help educate you . You could start with the ⁦⁩ survivor testimonies. I also recommend Night by Elie Wiesel. Here’s an Amazon link to make it easy for you to purchase."

Ocasio-Cortez then wrote, "Also , the fact that you employed the horrifying word 'exterminated' here (co-opting the language of the oppressor) tells us that it’s 'you' that needs to brush up on your reading. Hope you enjoy defending concentration camps. I won’t back down fighting against them."

Tuesday evening, Cheney appeared on Fox News' "The Story" and told host Ed Henry that  "left-wing zealots" are ignoring history and facts, that Ocasio-Cortez exhibits "a total disregard for the facts in particular about the Holocaust," and that the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House won't condemn her statements.

Cheney added the nation has a crisis at the border and that if Democrats were so concerned about the humanitarian conditions there they would have voted for a bill to provide $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid for the people involved.

"Secondly, we should never be in a situation where somebody is bringing up the Holocaust in this public discourse, particularly diminishing what happened, particularly demeaning the state of Israel, demeaning the memory of the people who are lost and we really ought to understand and come to an agreement that we aren't going to do that, Cheney said. "And any in depth understanding of history and, frankly, it doesn't have to be an in-depth understanding of history, it can be a surface level understanding of history, would demonstrate how wrong her comments were."

Wednesday morning, Ocasio-Cortez responded to Cheney: "The US ran concentration camps before, when we rounded up Japanese people during WWII. It is such a shameful history that we largely ignore it. These camps occur throughout history. Many refuse to learn from that shame, but here we are today. We have an obligation to end them."

She added, "Not one dime should go to DHS for building these camps as they detain children & families. Congressional appropriations season is now. That means it’s time - we‘re voting to fund federal government programs. We should not fund the caging of kids & families. Pretty simple."

Ocasio-Cortez most recently said, "DHS ripped 1000s of children from their parents & put them in cages w inhumane conditions. They call their cells 'dog pounds' & 'freezers.' I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are. If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps - not the nomenclature."

Wednesday morning, Cheney again disagreed with Ocasio-Cortez about the meaning of "concentration camp" from Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem: "@AOC Concentration camps assured a slave labor supply to help in the Nazi war effort, even as the brutality of life inside the camps helped assure the ultimate goal of "extermination through labor." Learn about concentration camps http://ow.ly/LtnX50uHJL2 #Holocaust #History