Andrea Pitzer is an American journalist, known for her books ''
One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps'' and ''
The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov''.
Pitzer's third book, ''Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World'', was published in 2021.
Early life
Pitzer attended the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, where she says she studied nuclear negotiations and treaties. While at Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, she was the editor of Nieman Storyboard.
Career
Pitzer was widely cited in 2019 over whether the camps where the United States Border authorities detained refugee claimants were or weren't canonical concentration camps
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...
.[ In particular, a tweet where ]Congressional Representative
A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served since 2019 as the United States House of Representatives, US representative for New York's 14th congressional distric ...
linked to an article in ''Esquire magazine
''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst, it also has more than 20 international editions.
Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under the guidance of ...
'', that extensively quoted Pitzer stirred widespread debate.
Pitzer was interviewed on ''All In with Chris Hayes
''All In with Chris Hayes'' is an American news television program that airs Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET on MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsi ...
'', on the Border Patrol detention camps, on June 6, 2019.[ According to Pitzer, recognizable concentration camps were first used in ]Spanish Cuba
The Captaincy General of Cuba () was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire created in 1607 as part of Habsburg Spain's attempt to better defend and administer its Caribbean possessions. The reform also established captaincies general ...
, developed by General Valeriano Weyler
Captain General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí, 1st Marquess of Tenerife (17September 183820October 1930) was a Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor-General of the Philippines and the Gover ...
during the Cuban War of Independence
The Cuban War of Independence (), also known in Cuba as the Necessary War (), fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Litt ...
in the 1890s. She said that while the Nazi death camps
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...
were the best known concentration camps, they have been used around the world. She said she found that concentration camps were hard to close; how she found that authorities found them so convenient, that they were re-used for other groups. She cited how French camps first used to house refugees from the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
were later used by the Vichy French
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against G ...
to house Jews rounded up to hand over to their Nazi occupiers, and a camp at the Guantanamo Naval Base to house Haitian and Cuban refugees was later used to house captives from Afghanistan. She said her book began when she "looked to see how this idea, of rounding up a whole bunch of civilians - noncombatants - and putting them in detention, without trial... How did that get to be seen as a good idea?"
Pitzer has described the internment systems for ethnic Uyghurs
The Uyghurs,. alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the ti ...
in China's Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
province, Japanese Americans
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
during World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Rohingya
The Rohingya people (; ; ) are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who predominantly follow Islam from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Ro ...
Muslims in Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
, and the immigration detention facility Alligator Alcatraz in Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
as concentration camps.
References
External links
Interview with Pitzer about her biography 'The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitzer, Andrea
American women journalists
Living people
21st-century American historians
1968 births
21st-century American women
People from Parkersburg, West Virginia