#nazi-germany

#nazi-germany

At least when I was in grade school, we learned the very basics of how the Third Reich came to power in the early 1930s. Paramilitary gangs terrorizing the opposition, the incompetence and opportunism of German conservatives, the Reichstag Fire. And we learned about the critical importance of propaganda, the deliberate misinforming of the public in order to sway opinions en masse and achieve popular support (or at least the appearance of it).

In the dire months since Donald Trump's return to power, you've no doubt read a version of the famous mea culpa "First They Came"-perhaps woven into the lines of an essay or op-ed, perhaps thumbed out on social media. Part warning, part exhortation, the short text (it's often mistaken for a poem) comes to us as tragically earned wisdom from the rise of the Nazis, alas grimly relevant to the America of today.

"I hereby indict the following persons for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity: Hermann Wilhelm Goring. Rudolf Hess. Joachim von Ribbentrop..." Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg's Palace of Justice was filled to capacity as Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson read out a list of names, one after the other. His list was long. The Major War Crimes Trial against 24 high-ranking representatives of the Nazi state began on November 20, 1945, in Nuremberg.

One key factor in the U.S. victory in the atomic bomb race was its ability to attract foreign scientists, particularly Jewish ones fleeing Nazi Germany.

What 12 years can do to society and what can happen, it doesn't need to be 50 years or 100 years, said historian Katharina Oguntoye.

In my Ordensburg, a youth will grow up that will terrify the world. I want a violent, imperious, fearless, cruel youth.

True to Nazi ideology, it was always about strength and fortitude. "The weak must be hammered away," begins a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler.

Charlotte Beradt, a German Jewish journalist who experienced Hitler's rise, found the messages in her friends' dreams irresistibly interesting, reflecting the psyche under totalitarian rule.

"Hitler's economic agenda was plagued by tariffs and a misunderstanding of economics, worsening the financial situation and contributing to inflation in Germany."