Watch 2 Refugees Describe Their Escapes From Syria and Germany as Children — Side by Side

The Syrian refugee crisis is one of the worst humanitarian emergencies since World War II. The situation is compounded by international reluctance, including Donald Trump's new ban, to accept the nearly 5 million registered refugees.

UNICEF recently released a video of a Syrian refugee child detailing his story of escape while an older German man explains his WWII experience concurrently. (UNICEF isn't the first to stress the similarities between the current political climate and WWII.) Given the White House's decision to bar refugees from entering the United States, the video is particularly powerful.

After fleeing without their parents, 12-year-old Ahmed and 92-year-old Harry explain what they left behind and their perilous journeys to asylum. "It was a decision of life or death," Ahmed recounts. "My brother and I fled on our own. We slept in the streets, in fields, or a park, wherever we could find."

Ahmed and Harry's stories end hopefully, but they explain how they are both "one of the lucky ones." Harry eventually settled in the United Kingdom, where he still lives; Ahmed was resettled in Sweden and reunited with his family. Closing with a vivid and unforgettable message, the last slide of the video simply shows three words with the first two crossed out: refugees, migrants, children.

"The needs of refugees have never been greater," said UNICEF CEO Caryl Stern in a statement about the film. "Worldwide, 28 million children have been uprooted by conflict, driven from their homes by violence and terror. We should not simply see them as refugees or migrants, but as children first."

UNICEF's message is both poignant and critical: children, the most innocent of beings, should not suffer because of nationalistic politics.