Letters to the Editor: It happened in Germany in the 1930s, and it's happening in America now

[IsItJustMe]

Source: Los Angeles Times Opinion

To the editor: My brother and I are the children of Holocaust survivors from Poland. Our mother was the only one in her entire family to survive World War II. ("I thought I'd escaped Germany’s dark history. The Capitol attack reminded me I was wrong," Opinion, Jan. 10.)

Our father, who lost his parents in the war as well, volunteered in the U.S. Army as a physician. My parents were both proud to be Americans.

As survivors — and never "victims," as my mother said — we were always "on guard" to watch for anti-Semitic remarks, and whenever there were reports of Jews being harassed or hurt, we were made aware that "it" could always happen again.

My parents were not alive to see the brutal attack on our democracy last week. To have watched as the Capitol came under attack was a reminder that "it" was happening again.

Professor Martin Puchner's heartfelt, powerful piece on his German grandfather's anti-Semitic writings and Nazi activism prior to the war was so important. The world has now witnessed the horrific and stunningly frightening images and sounds of hate in our country.

The warning "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is most pertinent for these dark days, and we need to heed the warnings.

Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/letters-editor-happened-germany-1930s-110045817.html
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We have to turn this around, or at least try.

[C_U_L8R]

1. That's their hope

If you listen you can hear them singing "tomorrow belongs to me"

[Bluethroughu]

2. Accountability for EVERYONE in that crowd

Or inciting this insurrection, needs to be in a prison.

[catbyte]

3. This has always stuck with me and how it seems to be happening here. I still can't

believe that 74,000,000 people thought that thing was fit to pollute the White House for another 4 years. But this begins to explain it:

[pwb]

4. No it is not. This is a handful of dropouts and freaks

They are a very small group and will be put in their places very soon. If the good people need to step up we will.

[IsItJustMe]

7. I am sure that is exactly what the Germans thought when it first started happening in their country.

[CaptainTruth]

9. Exactly. They thought it was a small fringe group that would be stopped...

...until suddenly it was no longer a small fringe group & it was too late to stop it.

[Permanut]

5. We are headed down that road..

I have been naive enough through my 75 years that I truly didn't believe it could happen here. My father did his time in the Army to defeat that evil machine rolling across the planet in the 30's and 40's, and we assumed, wrongly, that we were done with that particular kind of twisted cruelty.

Thanks for posting, IIJM, this hits right to the core of the current hatefest being celebrated by the Trump cult.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Given that antisemitism was in German media for years...

... and silently tolerated before Hitler and the Nazis seized power, I've thought about the similarities even before Trump was President.

I heard local hate-talk radio callers openly declare that all Democrats needed to be killed, with the radio host permitting it with a lame "now, now" response, many years ago. If they had replaced "liberals" and "Democrats" with "Jews", perhaps it would have received more attention because of the greater similarity to pre-Nazi Germany?

[appalachiablue]

8. There has to be a reckoning with media in this country,

esp. monopolized hate radio and soon. It's way long past due.

Look at the crisis we face in this country now. The Fairness Doctrine of 1949 was enacted because of the horrors of Nazism and fascism amplified by radio airwaves in Germany and Europe. Now, we are again in very dangerous waters.