27 January 2005 - 6:21am
Braced for the next Holocaust
My parents survived the Holocaust. I will not go into the details of their story, but they left me an oral legacy.
Growing up I always was warned, "This is how it begins."
How does it begin? "Very slowly." You hardly even notice. This right, that right. This freedom, that freedom. This bad group, that bad group.
"And slogans. They speak in slogans. Everywhere a slogan."
It's insidious, like a cancer. The lump? Oh, it's nothing. I'll look at it later.
A B17 tail gunner in my neighborhood, someone's dad, knew it too. He laughed at the American Nazi Party and their silly get-ups. No, he said. "When the Nazi come, they will come down Main Street, carrying the American flag, and singing the Star Spangled Banner."
It starts first with freedom being taken away in a "good cause." Only later, when neighbors are informing on neighbors does the reign of terror begin.
With the police now in place, files and lists put together, the camps set up, and guards trained. "Then began the round ups."
Growing up I was told what it was like to be shoved into a standing room only cattle car and what it felt like as it rolled off into the night - destination unknown. The people trembling. Their eyes filled with fear.
Why did the Nazis do it to them? "Who knows? They were on a list."
I am bracing myself. I fear for us all. I hope I am wrong. I pray to God I am wrong. But I see all those signs.
It has begun.
Matsu
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Comments
This is how it happens, slowly, with someone in the leadership "knowing" that they are right, that they have the answers and that they should be trusted because they are for the country and patriotic.
Blue
I see the signs too. Although I don't have relatives in your parent's category, I suppose --because my grandfather was a German infantryman-- I have always been burdened by the guilt of those days, and so have struggled to understand what happened, how and why.
I've lived in Germany, England and America. What I saw, is that Americans have more in common as a culture with Germans than with Englishmen. Although the language is different, Germans think, speak, gesture and view the world more like Americans than Americans resemble the English.
What I wonder about are those that fled. What was the clue, or what was the feature of their personalities or fortunes that enabled them to forsee the risks, and leave before the borders closed? Some of those that stayed, stayed because they felt they had no option. Perhaps they thought to protect elderly parents, or that they couldn't afford to start over in another country.
I suppose that means that some of those that left, left because they really did have an option: friends and relatives that offered help, skills, money. But it seems that some of them must have left because they felt they had no option. They saw something, or felt something that tipped them off in time -- and they were compelled to leave. I wonder about them because I think we need to start asking ourselves where we're at on the timeline.
For myself, I'd stay and fight the Nazis who wave Old Glory ... but I'm not sure I have the moral right to make that choice for my 15 year old son. Because, if this is the beginning, then the next step is the draft -- and he's prime draftmeat.
Perhaps you don't need this--I think not--but I beg you, kidnap him if you must, but don't let him go.
But we have to stand up and call it what it is - fascism. We have to say it loudly, clearly and in unison. We have to help other lefties get over the voice in their heads that says that is too extreme. We have to admit to ourselves that it IS that bad and it is going to get worse if we don't get our act together. They've gutted the Constitution, put right-wing ideologues in key positions and and are keeping ghost prisoners who may be imprisoned for life without access to courts. Some among them are now espousing the benefits of internment camps.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."