I don’t know if BroJoeK is Jewish; machts nichts. I very much appreciate his contributions to Homer’s daily threads about the war. The Holocaust should never be forgotten, although I fear that as it’s last survivors and perpetrators exit the stage, it will be.
I know I’ve posted this elsewhere on this forum, I don’t know if I’ve posted it on these threads or not. I’m getting old and forgetful. But among the degrees I have is one in Germanic Languages from Indiana University in 1981 (a good year to attend IU Bloomington, I might add). Part of my studies involved reading German literature and screenplays from the 1955-1980 period. To those who poo-poo a liberal arts education, I would say that you can learn a lot if you know what to look for, and I learned a lot about human nature’s dark side from my studies in Germanic Languages.
As I said, in the 1928, the average German would have said “that can’t happen here” in regard to the coming Holocaust. And colorado, it’s for the exact reason you stated. Berlin, and Germany in general, was one of the most cultured, educated and civilized nations in the world. But in 1941 they were rounding up Jews in the Soviet Union. In 1944 they were stuffing their gassed corpses in ovens. It was the German reaction to this starting about 1955 that was interesting.
That year, the “formal” partition of Germany was more or less recognized in the Cold War, Adenauer went to Moscow to formalize the fact to get the USSR to release the surviving German POWs, and the West Germans had more or less rebuilt their country. They were ready at that time to confront what they had done, it was expressed through their culture. There were two main themes in German literature and culture during from 1955. Those themes were “how could we have let this happen?” and “was all our suffering and sacrifice only in the service of evil?”
On the issue of “How could we let this happen?” I invite all of you to read the screenplay for “Biedermann und die Brandstifter” (if you don’t want the original German, it was done in the US as “The Firebugs” or “The Arsonits”). In this Max Frisch play, the bourgeois “everyman” (Biedermann is a literal German translation) rented his upstairs apartment to two thugs who openly said they were going to blow up the entire town. Biedermann dismisses this as just talk. But as the thugs openly carry out their plans under Biedermann’s nose, he is not only in denial but actively helps them. Sure enough, they blow up the entire town. Biedermann asks “why did you do this?” and is told “we told you what were going to do. Why didn’t you believe us?”
The other theme was expressed as one of “lost honor,” which I thought was even more intriguing. This theme was addressed to the German veterans and the families who had lost sons and brothers (usually with the epitaph of “im Osten Gefallen” or “fell in the East.”) The average soldier, no matter for whom he fights, has to believe that he is fighting for some “greater good.” For Germans, it was a matter of honor. And the same applied to the families who lost sons and brothers. They felt a loss of honor to be confronted by the horrors of the Holocaust, and the thought that they had been complicit in its perpetration. It was very hard for the Wehrmacht veteran to accept and deal with. Some unreconstructed hard core Nazis never did.
So, to make that relevant to today, or even in 1981 in Professor Harvey’s Civil Procedure class, yes, it can happen here. Everything that happened in Germany from 1933 to 1945 could play out here, too. A lot of it already is, as the democrat party is in all practical purposes the Communist Party. They were no better than the Nazis, just without the overt nationalistic and racial crap. But Stalin’s USSR was just as evil, or more evil than, Nazi Germany. In fact, the belief that we are somehow “immune” almost guarantees that it will happen here. We are all Biedermann. 0bama was quite clear what he was about, but a nation of Biedermanns was, and still is, in denial about it.
Comments/feedback welcomed.
What struck me was that Hitler did not really have a mandate when the Nazis became the plurality party in the Reichstag. Hitler had been defeated for President and his party did not have a majority.
But the country was willing to put his party in charge of the government almost out of desperation. The Great Depression hit Germany especially hard in an economy already weakened by the Treaty of Versailles. Unemployment was rampant and soup kitchens were popping up everywhere. There was fighting in the streets between Nazi Brownshirts and Communists that the police seemed incapable of stopping. Government incompetence had cut unemployment benefits when they were needed the most. The country wanted a change, but would it be the traditional left or the Nazis?
Hindenberg despised Hitler but finally turned to him to form a government. Still, the Nazis only had three ministries. It was enough. After the Reichstag fire Hitler had Hindenberg suspend a number of civil liberties. That gave the Nazis their opening to stage, in effect, a coup.
Now, I'm not saying the majority of Germans bear no blame because they hadn't voted for the Nazis. Although Hitler never allowed another free election, his regime seemed popular until the war went wrong.
My takeaway is that the Germans did not consciously install the Nazi dictatorship and the early stages of the Nazi government and suspension of portions of the constitution was all done perfectly legally. In the early stages people did not understand the Nazi intention to seize power and never give it up. Another example is Venezuela, where the Chavista takeover all seemed legal and democratic in the beginning. Sure fooled the President of the United States. So, are we Americans immune from something like this happening in the midst of some future crisis? I think not.
We have a small example today. We have a President who decides which laws he will or will not enforce and even if a law is being enforced he can decide if his friends are nevertheless exempt. Because everyone is desperate to head off the impending Obamacare disaster, do you hear any voices being raised that our Dear Leader does not have the authority to do what he is doing?
No, but some very close to me are.
I attend a small church that my great-grandfather helped build, and in which my grandparents were married.
Some of us there are descendants of soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.
All of us have family who now are, or have served in the US military.
Or congregation is small, but currently blessed with an amazing minister.
My serious interest in the Holocaust began many years ago in lengthy debates with people who denied it ever even happened -- people who referenced "historians" like David Irving, Mark Weber, Robert Faurisson & Ernst Zundel.
Those debates forced me to learn more than I ever intended about the subject.
As a result, when it turned out to be a simple matter to post the daily records from the Holocaust Chronicles along with Homer's New York Times articles, I thought it would be a definitely worthwhile exercise.
The historical juxtaposition between what Americans were told via the NY Times, and the Holocaust actually happening in Europe, seems to me highly worthwhile for Free Republic readers to grasp.
Indeed, along with many here I would argue that even today -- or especially today -- the contrast between perception gleaned from liberal/progressive media and actual reality is as strong as ever.
Point is: as it is today, so it ever was, only if anything, more so.
Anyway, thanks so much, henkster, for your posts here.
As always, they are interesting, informative and make powerful points, worthy of a good lawyer.
Oh wait, you are... ;-)