Following criticism from a Holocaust survivor for referring to migrants as an "invasion," the home secretary has stated she would not apologize for her words.
During a Friday meeting in her Fareham constituency, Joan Salter, 83, approached Suella Braverman.
She claimed that the home secretary's speech was reminiscent of the terminology the Nazis employed to justify the murder of her family.
However, according to Ms. Braverman, her use of terminology revealed the "magnitude of the problem" with illegal immigration.
According to a video of the conversation published by the organization Freedom from Torture, Ms. Salter said: "I am reminded of the rhetoric that was used to dehumanize and justify the deaths of my family and millions of others when I hear you refer to refugees as "swarms" and "invaders."
Why do you feel the need to speak in that manner, I wonder?
Thanking Ms. Slater for her inquiry, Ms. Braverman stated that she "shared a vast amount of worry and sympathy" over the "problem" of illegal immigration.
She claimed that even though her own parents were not born in the UK, they "owed everything to this country."
But she also said: "With regard to illegal immigration, we currently face a major issue whose scope we did not realize."
I'm not going to apologize for the words I used to express the severity of the issue.
The audience cheered Ms. Braverman's response.
The Home Office claimed a minute-long video of the incident that was posted to social media by Freedom from Torture was "heavily altered" and "doesn't show the complete exchange."
"We have requested that the organization that posted the video remove it because it misrepresents the dialogue regarding a delicate area of policy," a spokeswoman said.
Although a video of the entire interaction is available on the charity's website, the brief snippet will remain on social media, according to Sonya Sceats, the chief executive of the organization.
When confronted by a Holocaust survivor at a party gathering, Ms. Sceats claimed that Suella Braverman "refused to apologize for rude and dehumanizing remarks."
"We won't be bullied into helping her hide language she should be embarrassed of," we said.
In October, shortly after being reappointed as home secretary, Ms. Braverman said her position was "about halting the invasion on our southern shore," alluding to the large number of individuals traveling across the English Channel in tiny boats.
Although other politicians, notably former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and then-prime minister David Cameron, have used the word "swarm," Ms. Braverman has not.
Ms. Salter, who has received an MBE for her contributions to Holocaust education, was given the name Fanny Zimetbaum by her Polish Jewish parents when she was born in Brussels in 1940.
She fled to France with her mother and sister when the Nazis occupied Belgium when she was three months old.
In 1943, the Red Cross took her to the United States, where she met her parents. Since then, she has lived in London with them.
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