World War II has always been a historical event that has intrigued me. I have done a lot of reading and watching think documentary pieces about the war, what led up to it, and the people behind the rise and fall of the Nazis. I took a Hitler’s Germany course in college. I was somewhat interested in the actual war but primarily I was interested in how the Nazis took power, why they took power and why seemingly normal milquetoast citizens got behind this insidious and violent party. Our education and understanding of the Nazis only seem to ever focus on what happened after Kristallnacht and the invasion of Poland.
In college, I learned about a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is possible I heard this name prior but I can’t remember anything specific. In short, Bonhoeffer was a German pastor/theologian who stood up to the Nazi regime, possibly was involved/knew about an assassination attempt of Hitler and was killed for it. In some ways, he has since become a hero for Christians as a model for standing up against fascism.
Despite all my readings and research into World War II and the Nazi regime, I did not learn (or remember learning) until about two years ago that the Nazi party looked to and got a lot of ideas from America. The Nazis looked to America for inspiration on how to isolate and demonize people based on race, setting the foundation for how the Nazis treated others. I am not sure we, in America, fully understand this and recognize it.
I can’t help but think that by ignoring this fact, we don’t really understand how fascism takes over without us really recognizing it. The Nazi regime didn’t start by committing the atrocities that we most know about them. It was a slow but steady climb to power.
Here in America, we are going through an authoritarian takeover. I understand that the comparison to Nazis can be both, overdone and alarmist, but it is no longer the case here. The GOP in America has gone full-blown authoritarian and given power seats to fascists, nationalists, racists, propagandists, conspiracy theorists and religious extremists. They have propaganda machines at their disposal whenever they want, and they use them similar to the Nazi regime. They want to control you and me while doing it under the guise of “freedom”. They demonize people that aren’t “American” enough or “real Americans”, a definition that seems to really be defined as “an assimilated white Christian”.
This is not a new movement, but they have more power than they have had in the past. Their ideas no longer get just a wink and nod, while remaining on the fringes. They are also more open about their regressive policies than they were 25 years ago.
Most alarming is they have millions of people, your family and friends (and mine), that can’t or refuse to recognize it. They can’t or more likely, won’t bring themselves to see/understand the attacks on people who don’t look like them. They look at people like Bonhoeffer and say they would have been like him but they aren’t. They would be the silent German citizen just sitting on the sidewalk who did nothing to stop the movement.
It is similar to how I looked at old photos of the civil rights movement in America and said I wouldn’t be one of those holding a segregationist sign, thinking that was good enough. I never looked and saw my mythical 1960’s image marching with the civil rights movement. I would have been on the sidewalk too, just watching, staying silent, doing nothing to help or move things forward for people that didn’t look or act like me. I might have said something like, I support civil rights but voted for segregationists because their policies made me richer, or “had my family values”, or whatever other weak-ass reason I could think of so I could say I am not really racist or as bad as those others It is still a battle today despite having gone to marches, donating to causes, and listening, reading, and sharing the words of activists.
We can’t remain on the sidewalk but we also have to go beyond thinking we are doing a good job by “silently resiting”. We have to be on the frontline calling out our friends and family who have chosen to defend the GOP with empty arguments. We have to be prepared to lose friends and family, at the minimum.
I know this is heavy shit and might feel alarmist but the reality is, the alarm is already ringing. I now look around at my friends and family who are supporting the current GOP and think, they are no longer just the same milquetoast people who 90+ years ago were silent during the Nazis' rise to power. I no longer think we can call them one of the “Good Germans(1)”, it is much worse.
They would have voted for the Nazis.
How do I, how do you, how do we interact with our friends and family that are supporting the current version of the GOP knowing these people would have attached themselves to the Nazis 90 years ago?
It can't be with silence.
(1) - Referring to German citizens during and after World War II who claimed not to have supported the Nazi regime, but remained silent and did not resist in a meaningful way - Wikipedia
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