Holocaust language and asylum seekers.(Letters)

SIR: Even in the distant days when he was an academic, Max Teichmann was hardly famous for giving accurate acounts of other people's views. As his review of The Howard Years (April 2004) demonstrates, his standards have not improved now that be has abandoned the Fabian Society for the National Civic Council.

In discussing my chapter on refugees, he states:

 
   Maley keeps edging towards 
   Holocaust language about our 
   efforts to remain in charge of 
   our own destiny. Howard's 
   policy adds up to "moral 
   cruelty on a sickening scale". 
   The banality of evil is raised. 
   Finally, when talking of the 
   "horrors" of mandatory 
   detention, we find ourselves in 
   Theresienstadt. 

Oh no we don't. Although you would never guess it from Teichmann's formulation, my reference to Theresienstadt was concerned not with conditions of detention, but with echoes of a very specific type of propaganda which sought to paint detention without trial in idyllic terms. Here is what I actually wrote:

 
   On occasion, the Government's 
   defence of detention assumed a 
   surreal character. It is hard not 
   to smirk at exercises in 
   propaganda such as the 
   December 2001 media release 
   entitled "A Festive Season for 
   All Cultures in Immigration 
   Detention", promising 
   "pavlova with cream and 
   strawberries" in Perth and 
   "honey carrots and mint peas" 
   in Melbourne. But ultimately 
   this is not funny. It is too 
   reminiscent of similar 
   propaganda episodes from the 
   past, such as the film Der 
   Fuhrer schenkt den Juden eine 
   Stadt ("The Fuehrer 
   presents a city to ...