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I read an interesting book earlier this year called "The Inextinguishable Symphony". It was by Martin Goldsmith, who is one of the people who present classical music on XM/Sirius Radio (or was when I still subscribed). The book gets ists name from a symphony by Carl Nielsen.

It tells the story of Goldsmith's parents and their escape from Nazi Germany just before the war started. Both his parents were musicians. His mother was a violist who played with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell. She and Martin's father were Jewish, and played in an orchestra in Germany during the 1930s in a federation called the Judische Kulterbund. The Kulterbund was set up by the Nazis to provide cultural entertainment by and for Jews. No one but Jews could perform in it, and no one but Jews could attend performances. It was basically a way of isolating the Jews from "pure" Germans and keeping them entertained until they could deport them all and kill them.

What is frightening about the book is how gradually the Nazi menace creeps up on everything. It starts with people being dismissive of Hitler, then come the Nuremburg Laws, and the the horror of Kristallnacht. As the reality of what was happening became apparent, some of the Jews in the organization start making plans to leave Europe. Some were in denial about what was happening even after Kristallnacht. Ther's a story of a guy chiding fellow Jews for leaving everything behind. He tells them "you'll be sorry. I'll still be here when you return!". Needless to say, he was never seen again.

Earlier this year I read the Manchester/Reid biography of Churchill. I was frankly stunned just how far Baldwin and Chamberlain went in their "peace at all costs" approach to appeasing Hitler. I think the appeasement of the 1930s is different from what we are seeing today. In the 30's no one wanted to repeat the stalemate of WWI. Today, I think the left and the Islamists are actually on the same side. their enemy is the Judeo/Christian culture . Too bad most of us won't be around to see what happens when they turn on each other after we're gone.