Posted on 05/22/2024 11:17:53 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
As the sun set on a shattered Europe in the aftermath of the First World War, the birth pangs of a nightmarish reality were felt across Germany. From these turbulent times emerged the National Socialist German Workers' Party, colloquially known as the Nazis. Rising to full power in 1933 under the malevolent leadership of Adolf Hitler and his cadre of ruthless lieutenants like Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany erected an edifice of tyranny, intolerance, and unparalleled cruelty.
Picture this: the year is 1939, and you are a resident of Berlin. Kristallnacht, the infamous "Night of Broken Glass," occurred just a year prior, marking an escalation of state-sponsored terror. Can you even begin to fathom the depths of moral decay you'd be embroiled in? Would you dare to be a dissenting voice in a society where speaking out could result in your abrupt disappearance, or worse?
As historian Ian Kershaw observed, "The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference." His chilling words underscore the moral bankruptcy that made it not just possible, but perilous for the average citizen to survive in the Third Reich, let alone offer resistance.
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Look around at our Cancel Culture, the doxxing, the woke craziness, the Karens who make public scenes that don’t embarrass them, and the whole reparations crowd that feel entitled to things that make no sense.
People in our society are largely indifferent to everyone except themselves. They want what they want, and who cares what you think? People who are like this would gladly load you on to cattle cars.
Generally, people have always been largely indifferent to everyone except themselves. A free life is a handful.
That is what individual freedom is all about. Don’t worry about your neighbor. Take care of yourself and let him take care of himself - except maybe in emergency to help the other guy.
The difference is the haters of individual freedom and happiness have eroded the only legal bulwark of protection of individual freedom - the U.S. Constitution.
It’s a call to action to those who otherwise mind their own busniess.
Everyone, including a lot of historians like to blame indifference and lack of moral fortitude, but I think they are full of crap. By the time the SA became the SS and the gestapo were everywhere, the entire police state was woven in down to the street level where you had massive networks of people just turning in others under suspicion.
There probably were a LOT of people who were not indifferent, and who did not cooperate. They all died, or were sent to prison or to camps, or all of the above. Once the state has ultimate power, from top to bottom, you resist all you want. Make your stand. You’ll be erased as just another of the millions lost to history.
I am not suggesting that resistance isn’t praise-worthy.
I’m just saying, don’t act like no one resisted, or rebelled, or didn’t cooperate. They did. They just didn’t stand a chance.
“The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference.”
I knew a wonderful man who was a Holocaust survivor. His family was wiped out by the Nazis.
But he said that during the war most people in Europe were oblivious to what was happening. Himself included. When his family was ordered to report for ‘relocation to the east’ they went and they expected to be relocated to the east.
They were lied to but then so was everyone else. They all believed the lie and the few people who told the truth were ignored.
Well, I would point out that back 200 years ago, the government was small and weak and didn’t much interfere with people. So, Americans were quite free. But life can still be hard. No big government means no safety net, and no health insurance, and no food supplements, and no retirement fund. Americans were up to that challenge — it wasn’t such a big deal.
But if you needed help, you had your church, and your neighbors, and perhaps a benevolent society. People did look out a little bit for each other because, hey, someone had to. Today, I think part of the indifference is because “Your problems are not my problems, if you need help go ask a federal agency. And in the meantime, leave me alone, my TV show is on.”
We need Jesus.
William Shirer’s “Berlin Diary” and “The Nightmare Years” are very compelling street-level accounts of Nazi Germany.
Shirer was of a breed that no longer exists, a journalist.
Never give up ANY of your guns.
Freepers are aware the deep state - the goons and thugs of 'intelligence' - are fully aware of who we are - and hate us. And that there's not much difference between them and the SS or the old USSR's KGB.
If Biden and his goons win there's an even chance they'll use 'the law' against us like they're doing to Trump. And if that doesn't achieve the desired result, they'll kill us.
Now that we've seen how our 'elites' hide themselves from who they really are. I understand how Germans could have done what they did.
51 'intelligence thugs' signed a letter that was a lie to influence an election... and not a peep about the immorality of that ACT in the corrupt press. They define 'democracy' as what matters to them and what hurts us... and they justify it because they make their beds before they have coffee...
We've seen this movie before and it's ugly. om
As you say, individual freedom has a price but the price is well worth the reward.
As I said, this is now a call to action to those who otherwise mind their own business.
“They all believed the lie and the few people who told the truth were ignored.”
Sounds familiar. Doesn’t it? Sometimes things are too terrible to contemplate.
We should be pursuing the employers of the signers of the petition demanding the Chiefs fire their punter. We should be demanding these employers fire these employees for bigotry and hate speech.
You will not survive Bidenomics and the subsequent worldwide Bidenpression.
Judging from Covid, at least half the population of both parties would be turning in neighbors, following the laws, the courts would continue following whatever come out of government, the police would arrest non-compliant people, businesses would fire dissenters to keep lucrative government contracts.
Would you dare to be a dissenting voice in a society where speaking out could result in your abrupt disappearance, or worse?
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Those that did, were not. just like modern China or Russia or NK or Cuba.
You may be right. These parallels are eerie.
Hans Falada’s two great novels, Little Man, What Now? and Alone in Berlin, are also compelling. Both have been made into movies, but the books are better.
I think until the outbreak of WWII, the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan had a big head start on Nazi Germany. The horror stories told by people who had escaped from Russia may have made it easier for the Nazis to gain power in Germany since they were explicitly anti-Bolshevik (at least until the Hitler-Stalin Pact).
I highly recommend the movie “Sophie Scholl - The Final Days”
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