Stories We Should Pass on to All Americans
Germans I Know Who Lived in Nazi Germany Can’t Believe What they see Some Americans Embracing
I Hear Stories
When We Hear These Stories, We’d Do Well to Pay Attention to their Lessons
Stories. Now that I’m in Germany, I hear many stories. They are stories I hear from family members as I sit across from them at their dining room table or in their living room.
They are stories they tell about growing up in Germany as Hitler ascended to and consolidated his authoritarian power over their nation. They are stories told first hand, and are heart felt. They are stories told by people in the sunset years of their life with no other agenda except for those that hear them to know what really happened to them, their town, and their country. And to learn from their stories.
First Hand Stories
They tell me about life in Germany before and during WWII. They talk about the military service of their loved ones during the Second World War, including those that were killed in military service to Hitler’s Third Reich. They tell me about those they loved who were fortunate enough to make it home alive from the fronts, especially the eastern front, albeit scarred emotionally, mentally, and physically traumatized by combat. They add that soldiers that managed to survive had to walk hundreds of miles from their front to their home in Germany arriving exhausted and malnourished
They talk about the destruction of their town, their homes, their economy. They tell of the German civilians who fled to their town to escape the Russian army’s advance from the East as the German army was losing the war. They talk about food and housing shortages and all the many other difficulties that took place in their lives during the Allies’ occupation following Germany’s defeat.
What You Might be Saying Right Now
Now, I know what many reading this might be saying or thinking right now. They might, in response to my pointing to Nazi Germany and Hitler’s regime and telling us in the U.S. to beware of looming fascism, say words of dismissal and disbelief. They might go on to say what happened to Germany is not an example or a situation that transfers to, or has any applicability, to the U.S. After all they say, there are no jack booted, brown shirted fascist thugs marching through the streets of America saluting their MAGA leader.
Oh really? They may not be in a standard uniform, but we have clearly seen and heard from the fascists here. They just look a bit different from the photos in our history books of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s
Be Careful with Your Assumptions
In response to those comments or those thoughts, I would say- be careful. I would say to look around, listen, and observe carefully what is going on in the American public square as we come up to a presidential election.
True, there are no uniformed jackbooted storm troopers marching around in formation. But there is a significant portion of our population that is extremely comfortable with the violent hate filled speech and conduct espoused by the leader of the extreme right wing of a major American political party. We saw on national television some of his followers so motivated by such rhetoric that they stormed and vandalized our Capitol as they attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our history.
We Become Conditioned to It
Further, much has been written about the fact that the volume, frequency, and intensity of this inflammatory hate filled rhetoric has greatly increased. As it has intensified, the more accustomed to it we become. It becomes our “new normal”, even if we see ourselves as being more moderate politically than the extreme words being spoken to us.
Then We Fail to See the Danger We’re In
We become so accustomed to it that we stop seeing danger around us, to our freedoms, and our democracy. We don’t seem to notice that the words of an aspiring presidential candidate echo and mirror those of Hitler, and of other fascist authoritarians throughout history. Many don’t realize his words parallel Hitler’s own book, Mein Kampf.
After all, it can’t happen here as it did in Germany, right? Or as it did in Italy, right? Or in Russia, right? Or in Hungary, right? Or in all the other places around the globe where fascism has taken hold, right?
The answer to those questions depends upon how serious one views the intentions expressed recently by the GOP candidate for president of the United States. Those declared intentions include that, if elected, rounding up millions of illegal immigrants into camps to await deportation. Those declared intentions by that same person include arresting and prosecuting government officials and network news executives of news outlets he sees as being critical of him. He describes immigrants to this country using Hitlerian eugenics terminology of “poisoning our blood”. If one views these statements and a plethora of his other similar statements as simply “gas bag “ political hyperbole, then we conclude that words like his don’t matter very much.
Many Germans made the same mistake by not taking Hitler seriously. After all, with Hitler assuming power in 1933, things in Germany started improving economically. Plus, the Nazi Party was small in comparison to Germany’s total population. Things at first seemed to be getting better for a Germany that had been suffering greatly economically from its WWI defeat.
Of course, how could the average German know that this economic improvement was because Hitler purposefully was ignoring the terms of Germany’s WWI Treaty of Versailles terms of surrender? Instead, he was rebuilding Germany’s military into a new massive war machine that would launch what became WWII in 1939. How could they know that many of Germany’s political and wealthiest elite had made a “devil’s bargain“ with Hitler thinking mistakenly they could control him once they gave him the Chancellorship. And we all know it didn’t take long after Hitler’s ascension for the round up of political prisoners, dissidents, communists, Romas, homosexuals, and Jews for placement into camps to begin.
Maybe We’re not as Different as We Think We Are
So, as I listened to the stories it became clear why they told these stories to me. They were concerned about my country. For them, the United States was the chief reason that Germany and the other NATO countries had enjoyed 70 years of peace, the longest peace Germany had ever enjoyed . Their ancestors and relatives had never known such peace having fought in wars in 1870, 1914, and 1939.
Why, they wonder, would Americans risk all their nation had achieved as a free representative democracy, and willingly trade it for authoritarianism, especially with all the American blood that was spilled to confront and defeat fascism? Why would Americans trade their democracy, the oldest in the world, for the empty promises of an authoritarian? Promises that will require surrender of the very freedoms for which Americans fought and defeated Hitler’s and Mussolini’s fascist regimes in order to free western Europe from tyrannical dictatorship. Most Americans, they believe, know what happened in Germany and Italy in the 1930s and 40s. So why, they ask, would Americans fall prey to authoritarianism’s siren song in 2024?
They Want Their Story to be Shared
Listening to these stories, I came to understand the reason these stories were being shared with me. They want their stories, as difficult as it is for them to relive them, to be told. They want us to know how dangerous it is to blindly follow a leader who says he can restore a nation to its mythical past, all in exchange for ceding to the leader their individual freedoms.
At first, they tell me, the leader’s followers’ ears are “tickled”. But the price paid for believing a strong man’s cheap talk and endless lies is very high. They know. They have lived it. They cannot understand why anyone would willingly and knowingly choose to live it as well.
We Can Learn What to Reject
And they know that the decision Americans make in this presidential election will not just affect us. All democratic nations, especially those in Europe dealing with a Russian launched invasion of Ukraine, will be impacted.
But most of all, they are concerned. So concerned that some of them woke up at 2:00 in the morning their time to watch our presidential debate live. After watching the GOP candidate, they remain in shock and disbelief, holding on to the hope that a majority of Americans will see through this dangerous wannabe strongman’s charade.
Stories Made to be Shared and Learn From
Stories. I hear stories when I visit Germany. I hear their stories clearly as I share them with you. I hope now you too hear them, heed them, and take them to heart. Whether we realize it or not, these Germans are telling me these stories because they don’t want to see fascism destroy our country as it did theirs and so many others.
So, their stories point now to us. We must choose wisely. What’s at stake this election for the United States is more than we can imagine. These Germans who have been telling me their stories know and understand the precipice we are on only too well.