Growing up, my Father had a lot of history books on the shelves of the family room. Those books were lost in a fire in TN many years later. But I remember the bookshelves being full.
A lot of these books dealt with the history of WWI and WWII. There were some that provided historical analysis of the rise of the NAZI party.
As a child, no books in my Father’s or Mother’s home were forbidden for me to read. Obviously, there were a few books that I was strongly discouraged from reading because of content.
Even then, those books weren’t forbidden but my parents explained, rightfully so, that the subject matter was beyond my experience and that I probably wouldn’t enjoy or understand the book.
As I grew older the number of “discouraged” books dwindled in number. Dad would find me reading something from his library sometimes and ask in a friendly way, “What’re you reading sport?” I’d tell him or show him the cover and he’d almost always respond, “Good for you, if you run into something you don’t understand come get me,” then he’d go on about whatever task he was heading to do.
My curiosity led to our discussing the rise of the NAZI party and the conditions that existed in Germany after WWI that possibly led to WWII and Hitler.
These discussions happened 45 to 50 years ago. So I don’t remember the full context, what I do remember is my Dad listening, guiding, and challenging my logic on certain points.
I remember him grabbing the encyclopedia volume(s) that contained more information and helping me read and comprehend the information they contained. By no means was this a scholarly dissection of world politics but it formed some of my core beliefs about right and wrong, good and evil, and general morality.
I also remember thinking that America was a pretty great place. Dad talked about the rights we as a people had, the duties we had to each other, and those we had to our nation.
Dad was also very clearly pointed out that we delayed entry into WWII in part because we were weary of war. He thought it was unclear if we would have entered the war until much later, had it not been for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Dad said that Japan’s attack was the effect of our interfering with their ability to obtain raw materials for their war effort in China. His opinion, if I recall correctly, was that we were right in attempting to cool Japan’s war efforts but that we should have seen that our interference would illicit a response. I vaguely recall him saying something like Japan was so far away that perhaps the politicians felt Japan posed little threat.
I provide all this as a backdrop so that you can understand why an article caught my attention and sent cold chills down my spine.
The article (I’m looking for the original source,) Was a snippet of an interview with a 80 something German who had immigrated to America after the defeat of the NAZIs. Apparently he was commenting on ANTIFA here in the US. (I really want to read the whole interview.)
The quote was, “We never thought it could happen in Germany either, these people must be stopped by whatever means necessary.“
I’ve caught similar interviews from survivors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau. These survivors were Jews, but this is the first time I’ve seen something from a German who was not in a camp, and not a Jew.
Then I remembered reading about the rise of the NAZIs, and talking with my Dad about it. There were similar comments in those books and some of the interviews expressed a confusion on the part of average Germans as to how Germany, and by extension themselves, had come to be involved in death camps. I remember that a lot of the first person accounts were very conflicted. It was as if their pride in their country had been subverted into a rabid nationalism and that state run media and censorship had a large part in adding fuel to the fire.
One aspect was that it became dangerous to yourself or your family if you asked questions or expressed dissenting opinions. Because of that overarching threat, human nature was to comply.
Many of the people were hoping that the problem would just go away and tended to their jobs hoping that the disruption wouldn’t be too severe. A lot of average Germans held no animosity toward Jewish people at all. But Jewish people, and people who were different were painted by the propaganda machines of The Third Reich as enemies of the state.
After years of hearing the propaganda, folks were left questioning their values and would in fact snitch on their neighbors sometimes out of a misplaced sense of nationalism. At other times to curry favor with the local NAZI officials for better food or medicine.
The disturbing thing was that generally, folks believed they were doing the right thing. It was only in hindsight that it became clear their loyalties and national pride had been co-opted, perverted, and ultimately betrayed by their leaders.
The chill that ran down my spine was noticing the similarity between then in Germany, and now in the United States.
Here in the US right now, we have several “Enemies”.
The Police, The President, The Republicans, The Democrats, COVID. All are to varying degrees painted as the enemy. While at the same time Nationalism coupled with a pervasive sense of fear, or unfairness, is increasing.
To listen to the left, Trump is trying to subvert the electoral process, The right says the Democrats are stealing the election. Yet both sides would tell you they absolutely believe they are trying to protect this country.
Maybe both are.
Both parties are coming at this with different information and both sides are having that information re-enforced by the news media and their own personal beliefs. I strongly suspect that the “Truth” is not something that either side has a full grasp of. I also suspect that is by design.
At the level of the ground forces both groups only know what they’ve been told, or what they choose to believe.
The puppet masters at the top are the ones who have the full story and are pulling the strings. It’s the oldest story in the world, (besides prostitution,) divide and conquer.
While I personally believe that the election was monkeyed with on many levels. I’m hoping for a Trump win but that may not be the case. As I’ve stated what concerns me more as a citizen of this country is that the election itself may be corrupt. If that is true, then it’s become completely pointless to have elections at all. If there’s no point to elections then we already have a socialist state where dictators for life will become commonplace.
It is entirely possible that if Biden / Harris are declared the winners, that I will die before another Republican gets into office. Look at Obama. I voted for him for his first term. I bought the hype and thought, “If he delivers on any of his promises the country will come out ahead.” By his second campaign I was firmly in the anyone but Obama camp and was disappointed that he won a second term. I personally was concerned by his pen and phone call stance to bypass naysayers in congress. Of course there were those on the far right that said he was corrupt. I chose to reserve judgement.
As Obama yielded office to Trump I thought, “I hope this guy does a better job than Obama and thank God it’s not Hillary.” Naively, I thought that would be the end of it for at least four years. I was laughably wrong about that the past four years have been a shit show of epic proportions. Not because of what Trump did or didn’t do, but because of the unparalleled venom, obfuscation, and outright demonstrable lies that have become canon told about him and his administration.
Had congress spent less time pursuing red herring after red herring to impeach the man and simply worked within the framework of the constitution and law with him. I believe that the country would be far better off than it was in the Obama years.
I mean look at it. Congress spent four years trying to come up with evidence to support impeachment. When they finally did, their four years of conflict fell apart within a week.
That on it’s face says they didn’t have anything. It was all smoke and theater, a distraction, something to polarize the parties and the people.
Trump is a New York businessman. He doesn’t have to be nice, he by definition is arrogant and bombastic. He’s prone to hyperbole, so the fuck what? He’s made and lost more money than I’ve made in my whole life several times over, and still he’s comfortable enough to donate his entire presidential salary for four years to various charities.
When was the last time any other politician made that choice?