A good friend with whom I lunch regularly used to be a high school history teacher. She is tormented by what she sees as clear parallels between Nazi Germany in the 1930s and America under Trump, and for anyone familiar with that history, it’s hard to disagree with her.
I thought about our conversations when I read a recent guest essay in the New York Times.
The author began by sharing his recollection of rooting through a pile of items in a flea market in the early 1940s, and finding an old diary–the product of a German soldier from WWII. As he wrote, he might have missed it, but being Jewish, books adorned with eagles perched on swastikas tended to catch his eye.
The diary was in German, which he couldn’t read, but it was the black-and-white photographs of the soldier’s life that interested him: the diarist’s photo in his sharp new uniform, pictures with his fellow soldiers, others with what appeared to be his family at a festive dinner, and several of the soldier with a pretty young woman–perhaps his wife or girlfriend.
What was most notable was what I didn’t find: There were no photos of death camps, or mass graves, or starving prisoners. Instead, there was one of him with his parents in front of their house. Proud.
The absence of any visual representation of the horrors being visited on Germany’s Jews (and gays and gypsies..) reminded the author of his family’s characterization of Germans. All Germans. His grandparents’ families had been murdered in the Holocaust, and to them, all Germans were “hateful, fascist murderers — fools who could be led by a fearmonger to commit atrocities he claimed were necessary and good.”
His family often expressed thankfulness that “we were not like them.” Americans were different.
I recalled that certainty in recent days, reading about the murder of Renee Nicole Good. I read about how the Trump administration quickly labeled her a terrorist. About how federal officials blocked the investigation by the state of Minnesota. About how our leaders accused her of trying to ram an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent when the videos of the incident seemed to clearly show otherwise. “Who are you going to believe,” asked Chico Marx, “me or your own eyes?” I suppose, in the eyes of this administration, that makes me a Marxist now.
None of this surprised me. After all, the shooting was just one day after the administration published a propaganda website saying the Jan. 6 insurrection was the fault of the Democrats and the Capitol Police.
As the author then writes, any belief that “Americans are different” will be rebutted by a visit to social media.
On several social media platforms, he encountered Americans who believed the Trump administration without question, who repeated the government accusations that Good was a “paid agitator” who got what she deserved, that the armed agent was a hero, “defending his nation from undesirables.”
Past or present, it’s not the leaders who disappoint me. It’s the led…
But I miss those days.
I miss the comfort of believing Germans were different.
I miss believing that we Americans could never be led by a fearmonger to commit atrocities he claimed were necessary and good.
I miss believing we are not like them.
I could have written that essay–or something similar. I too was raised in a family horrified by the atrocities of the holocaust, and convinced that there must be something twisted and different in the German psyche that allowed ordinary Germans to ignore the camps, the mass graves and smells from the crematoria, that allowed them to agree with their government that eradicating millions of people was for the good of the nation, that people who were different–people who worshipped differently or loved differently– were no better than vermin and that their extermination wasn’t cause for concern.
There is one important difference between today’s America and Germany in the 1930s, and I cling to it. A huge percentage of Americans have seen the videos of Good’s murder, and the millions who aren’t substituting the administration’s propaganda for the evidence of their own eyes are taking to the streets. And Minnesota’s Governor made a magnificent speech in which he pulled no punches, praising the resistance in that state.
The country is being tested. And as I keep assuring my friend, I do believe a majority of Americans will prove to be different from the “good Germans” who closed their eyes and went along.
I sure hope I’m right…..
As a Jew, to watch these news programs, yes, makes me think of Nazi Germany.
I was born here, but the Holocaust lives in the bones of every Jew.
I feel pain and sadness to see immigrants, regardless of status, harrassed, hounded, and worse.
The situation is a very horrific statement about America today.
I guess you do not remember how peaceful people opppsed to what we were doing in Vietnam war. And how we were peacefully demonstrating the reactions were violent and hateful. Many were charged with false claims.
Same was true for those of us who demonstrated for racial equality. Even states passed laws based upon discrimination and law enforcement as well as people acted violently against peaceful demonstrations
This is different because national leadership has tapped into this negative energy for their power and greed. Blatantly and boldly benifit from all that is happening
Sadly, many millions of Americans and foreign leaders have stood still in support of Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza, started by a Democratic President, followed up by a Republican one, who admitted that Miriam Adelson owns him. I’ve heard Republicans claim two years into the genocide that Israel has the “right to defend itself.” From women and children? The IDF shoots kids as target practice and then buries the bodies so they can’t be counted in death tolls.
When young people across the country hit the pavement in protest of the genocide, they were arrested and kicked off college campuses. Zionist PACs and their Billionaire Donors wanted it to happen because our 1st Amendment rights are anti-semitic. Americans stayed quiet.
I know half of Israel is protesting Bibi Netanyahu, but he is actually more evil than Trump, and that says a lot about both of them. Of all people, some of the justifications for genocide and murdering women and children from the right-wing crowd in Israel (Knesset leaders) are beyond appalling, but I don’t hear any condemnation from foreign leaders. Everybody tiptoes around the subject because the US backs it. I believe a leader in Spain called him “Our modern-day Hitler.”
And just like in Germany, our media is complicit. All the major outlets have fallen in line with Israel’s ethnic cleansing. I am amazed that they talk about the phase one “ceasefire plan” of Trump, while Israel has murdered 1,500 Palestinians during this phase. According to the “peace plan” Trump forced upon the Palestinians, Israel has violated it 1,600 times. No condemnation!!!
Trump has appointed himself Czar of Palestine and appointed a war criminal from the UK to lead the “reconstruction of Gaza,” which is recognized as a sovereign state by 80% of the world. Why they haven’t they been recognized? The US of A wills it not to be.
And now, Trump says any nation can be part of “his reconstruction effort” for a measly $1 billion fee paid to him. The Deep State must approve because they haven’t taken him out yet.
Based on what I see on X and listening to Tucker Carlson, I predict 2026 will be a great divergence on Israel and the US of A. The America First crowd is speaking up over our media landscape that continues dying on the vine no matter how many billions the Ellisons throw at it. Our vetoes have a price and so does media’s complicity.
“The absence of any visual representation of the horrors being visited on Germany’s Jews (and gays and gypsies..) reminded the author of his family’s characterization of Germans. All Germans. His grandparents’ families had been murdered in the Holocaust, and to them, all Germans were “hateful, fascist murderers — fools who could be led by a fearmonger to commit atrocities he claimed were necessary and good.”
His family often expressed thankfulness that “we were not like them.” Americans were different.”
Watching the rerun this morning of Rachel Maddow’s Monday night report I was struck by the fact that the global spread of Trump and the U.S. government’s current moral turpitude is shouting out like those “good Germans” that Americans don’t know what is going on. I drug out my copy of the U.S. Constitution, there are SEVEN Articles signed by the signatories, followed by the Amendments. Article I, reflecting the requirements and limitations of the Legislature is the longest; today Legislators are our greatest internal enemy, including those who sit mute and idle as the Executive branch marches over the U.S. and globally. Articles II and III are shorter and followed by Articles IV – VII regarding the responsibilities and limitations of States to follow Constitutional laws, both federal and state Constitutions. That is how I see it; if I’m wrong I know you out there will call me on it.
The total moral turpitude of Articles I, II and III have gotten lost under the Trump full Dictatorship distractions of lack of release of Epstein’s files, declaration of war on Venezuela and Trump’s self appointed takeover and threatened war (if he so decides) on Greenland, Denmark and any other of the allies who are now turning against us. Please explain why NATO would be disbanded if Trump takes over Greenland; and why Trump is not simply removed from NATO to resolve many of the global problems he is causing?
The legal appeals filed in the courts bring any action against the current Fascist government’s sweeping actions against this nation to a standstill. Moral turpitude laws which were originally enacted for the protection of immigrants are nowhere to be seen; have they been repealed, forgotten or ignored to allow American military to act against immigrants and Americans alike in the current Trump World View?
Another morning I regret waking up in this foreign nation, dreading what new distortion of laws and disasters we will face before bedtime tonight on this 1st Anniversary of Trump’s first year, second term in office?
“The country is being tested.” And so far we are failing miserably.