The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Albrecht Classen
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, a former soldier rose in rank, gaining popularity, appealing to the masses, speaking a nationalist language of extreme effect, radicalizing the voters, and gaining the power of the German chancellorship.
He did not really win the election, but since there were so many smaller parties, the NSDAP had garnered a plurality of votes, which justified the German President Hindenburg to appoint Adolf Hitler as the new leader. He was a voice of hope, of grandeur, of national glory, and of German power. The end of WWI had been catastrophic for Germany, as expressed in the Versailles Treaty (huge reparations, loss of lands, ban on a German military, etc.). The horrendous inflation since 1929 had brought much poverty and misery to the entire country, and there was no clear end in sight, until Hitler stepped onto the public stage and won over the nation with his vision, his speeches, his organizational talent, and his megalomaniac promises.
Most entities did not worry about this little lance corporal. The banks were convinced that he would serve only a short period of time; the super-rich were not concerned about him because they believed that they could control him. The police were on his side anyway, and so were the members of the traditional aristocracy. Jews did not worry because they believed in their full integration into German society, especially after WWI, with countless Jewish men having sacrificed themselves for the German cause, and many having received the Iron Cross for their bravery. The rural population was easily swayed by him in ideological terms, and a vast swath of the intellectual elite (e.g., Martin Heidegger) fell for the Nazis.
To gain absolute power, Hitler and his goons quickly took over all media (then: radio and newspapers), the police, the entire education system, and they controlled the administration. Soon, uniformed agents populated the streets (the SA, later replaced by the SS). Concentration camps for political opponents, disabled people, homosexuals, and other groups popped up all over the country, and violence in public spaces became the norm, everything in the name of the glorious FΓΌhrer. Books were burnt, all the arts were streamlined, free thought was no longer tolerated, and the blanket of fear began to cover the entire country except for the Nazi sympathizers. People began to disappear, all elections were cancelled, a flood of new laws was issued, and the legal system became a complete victim of the regime.
The rest is history we all know just too well: the Holocaust and WWII. It took massive efforts by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union to defeat the Nazis, and this at the cost of millions of dead on both sides and the complete destruction of Germany as a country.
Moving fast forward, the USA now faces a president who rules by executive orders, who runs a private army (ICE), who has ordered the establishment of concentration camps aka detention centers, who tries to control and manipulate all elections (or ban them), who is attempting to take over neighboring countries in parallel to the Anschluss of Austria on March 12, 1938 and the conquest of the Czech Republic directly following the Munich Pact on Sept. 30, 1938 when the western forces tried to appease Hitler.
Appeasement is not possible in face of a bully. Democracy does not survive when people act like sheep and quietly accept the brutalization and even murder of innocent civilians protesting the uncalled-for actions of ICE.
Crime committed on behalf of the government is crime. Uniformed agents with military armor and weapons do not belong in our streets. The writing is all over the wall, so let us not repeat the tragedy brought about by Germany under Hitler. There is no other option but to stand up and fight for the rights of all people living in this country.
Attempting to take over other countries with military means only mimics Putinβs efforts in Ukraine. The rest of the world is turning away from the USA, so the Trump train is bound to crash into the wall of self-isolation and self-destruction. We Americans are so much better than that.
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
