Dearest grandchildren,
Every time I read my father’s words about the events that led to Hitler’s rise to power and, subsequently, to WWII, I get a shiver down my spine. Hasn’t the phrase “never again” reverberated in our society for decades? Have we not listened to our own warnings? Have we not learned our lesson?
So much of what my father writes here about the political environment in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s reminds me of America under Trump’s presidency – which, thank god, is about to come to an end. Dad explains that Hitler didn’t invent anti-Semitism in Germany; he simply played into the anti-Semitism that already existed, making bigotry, intolerance, and hate completely acceptable.
Sound familiar?
In the summer of 2016, I promised my father that Americans would never vote in a clown like Trump. I confidently promised him – and look what happened.
Dad was right: we forget all too quickly.
After Trump was voted into office, Dad reminded me that Hitler didn’t seize power in Germany. No - he was democratically elected by an enthusiastic, educated electorate. It was only after he was voted in that he began to strip away the protections of the German democracy – he dismantled the press, he decreed “emergency” measures in order to increase his power, and then he dismantled the German constitution.
Trump wanted to do the same thing. He wanted us to hate immigrants. He insisted, exactly as Hitler had done, that the press was “the enemy of the people,” and he proclaimed, with no evidence at all, that the 2020 election was “rigged” and that he won “in a landslide.” Bullshit, all of it. Fortunately, in 2020, most Americans saw exactly what Trump was trying to do and they knew that our democracy couldn’t survive another four years of Trump.
So they voted in Joe Biden by 7 million votes. But Trump still won 74 million votes to Biden’s 81 million votes. After all the destruction Trump has caused over the past four years, he still won an astounding 46.8% of the votes cast (to Biden’s 51.3%). And those 74,000,000 people seem to love Trump. He is a bona fide cult leader.
The fact that so many Americans can still adore Trump after everything our country has gone through in the past four years shows that no, we don’t know the meaning of “never forget,” and no, we haven’t learned our lesson. If you’re wondering how a man like Adolf Hitler could have ever risen to power, just look at America’s dysfunctional relationship with Donald Trump.
It is all still scary. We have three weeks to go before Biden takes office. This is an extremely dangerous time because, well, Trump is mentally ill and wouldn’t hesitate for a second to torch this country as he exits, never conceding and incessantly whining.
My father died suddenly just a month after Trump took office. I believe that the election of Trump killed him. Almost 70 years after the fall of the German Reich and the almost total destruction of the country my father called home, the country to which he emigrated with such high hopes elected a man who wanted to be a dictator – and not even because he had a vision for the country. The only vision this man had was for himself.
Keep all of this in mind as you read my father’s words about Hitler’s slow, steady rise to power:
“Protected Early Childhood -- 1928-1933
The political background:
Before the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party -- the Nazi Party) came to power:
Feb. 24, 1920: Party Program of the NSDAP: (Wahl *13, pg. 3)
4. “Only Ethnic Germans (the text says “Voksgenossen”[1] -- an untranslatable Nazi terminology for people of German descent, even if living outside of Germany proper) can be citizens of the State. Only persons of German blood, regardless of religion, can be Volksgenossen. Therefore, no Jew can be a Volksgenosse.”
5. Whoever is not a Citizen can live in Germany only as a guest, subject to laws for foreigners.”
1925: ( Adolf Hitler., “Mein Kampf”, 1933 Edition # 78, pg. 334): “<The Jew[2]> is always a parasite in the body of other people.... he always looks for new sustenance for his race ... he will always remain a typical parasite who, like harmful bacteria, will constantly spread .... Wherever that parasite shows up, the host country will sooner or later die...”
That was in 1925. By 1933, “Mein Kampf” had gone through 78 editions, and had become almost, but not quite, required reading for all Germans. But in 1945, after the war, most Germans would say they had “no idea of what was going to happen to the Jews when Hitler would come to power”? Hard to believe.
The early 1930’s were the time when many people -- literally scores of them -- died in Germany in street brawls, mainly between Communists and National Socialists (Nazi) bands.
None of those frequent protest marches and street fights could solve the huge unemployment problem and the generally desperate situation of the country, brought about by losing “the World War” (as WW I was then called). The Nazis steadily increased their influence by increasing their number of representatives in the Reichstag, in democratic but hotly propagandized election,. Over years, they tried for, but never got, an absolute majority. Finally, on January 30, 1933, after months of legal cunning, and semi-legal political maneuvering and grandstanding, the aging and beleaguered President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. They had won. (Descriptions of that struggle are fascinating, see books like *Wm. Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” (*3), or Warren Morris’ “The Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany” (*20) and many others.
On March 13, 1930, when the NSDAP (“National Socialist German Workers’ Party”) was still a minority in the Reichstag (Legislature), they proposed that the following be made the law of the land:: (Joseph Walk: *13 - pg 3)
“Para 5: “Whoever contributes, or threatens to contribute, to the racial contamination or injury to the German people, by commingling with members of the Jewish or colored races, is committing racial treason, and therefore is subject to penitentiary punishment.”
Para 7: “... in particularly serious cases, in lieu of disciplinary action by imprisonment in a penitentiary, the death penalty <may be applied>.”
And the Germans were unaware of how the Jews would be treated as soon as the National Socialist Party and Hitler came to power?
After they came to Power on January 30, 1933:
Immediately, the Nazis issued an avalanche of specific directives and “laws” in their first year in power. The Collection by Joseph Walk (*13: “Sonderrecht für die Juden im NS-Staat”[3]) lists over 300 of them for the year 1933 alone. Below, for each Nazi-era chapter, are only a few samples of typical or fundamental decrees. Some of them represent openly the Nazi ideology. Many of them are local, possibly responding to local public demands. But did the local governments and officials do it because of real pressure by local people? Or was it that anti-Semitism had now become government policy, and local bureaucrats wanted to be politically correct by being “holier than the Pope”? I don’t know.
It is interesting to look at the almost 2,000 “laws” the Nazis issued between 1933, when they came to power, and 1945, when World War II ended. The Nazi Party’s need to issue new directives diminished noticeably over time. There were more than ever after in the first year of their reign. Over the years, the number decreased, except in those years that saw specific major anti-Jewish actions: the Nürnberg Laws in 1935, the Kristallnacht in 1938, and the Wannsee Conference with its “Final solution of the Jewish Question” in 1942. You will notice that the most amazing aspect is the speed with which the Nazis implemented and “legitimized” their racial ideology. At that time, I believe, anti-Semitism was the genteel, generally accepted way to think, and many - if not most - people considered it not offensive. Once those laws laid the groundwork for establishing their policies, “The Party” could do the next nefarious thing: tighten the screws only little by little. Repressions were instituted almost imperceptibly, so that the public would hardly notice it. If anybody did question it, it was easy to excuse it by saying: “Oh, that’s nothing new, we’re only clarifying the existing laws and policies!”
What is clear is this: centuries-old anti-Semitism was strong in Germany. The Nazis did not invent it. It already was in existence, openly, ready to be exploited. Any act that played to the public opinion could only improve the regard people had for their local officials. It was as though a flood gate had been opened for anti-Semitism to pour forth. Some of those laws listed here were eventually changed or superseded by nation-wide laws, yet: they were issued, not in secrecy, not behind closed doors, but passed and published, at the rate of about one a day, day after day. Very few of these “laws” and directives were issued in secret; quite contrary: they were published, at least in judicial magazines, but often even in the daily press, which was under pressure to “cover the Jewish Question continuously without pause” (*13, pg. 398). Anybody who wanted or needed to know them could read them in publications.
Feb. 17, 1933: (Walk *13 , pg. 3):
Directive to Police: The existing law, which ordered that Eastern Jews accused (not convicted!) of hostile activities against the people, were not to be deported, is herby rescinded.
Feb. 28, 1933: (*13 , pg. 3):
The Articles (114, etc.) of the Constitution, which concern basic civil rights, are declared repealed. (This decree forms the basis for the much of the anti-democratic legislative activity of the Nazi era.)
March 15, 1933: (*13 . pg 4):
Reich Ministry of the Interior decreed:
1. Immigration into Germany of Eastern Jews is to be avoided.
2. Eastern Jews without residence permit are to be removed.
3. No more Eastern Jews are to be naturalized.
March 21, 1933: (*13 . pg 5):
Decree (issued by the same as above, and others):
Actions against the National-Socialist movement, or against the reputation of the NS (National-Socialist) State, are subject to severe punishment, ranging from prison to the death penalty. Also subject to punishment is the wearing of NS uniforms while putting down disturbances or declarations of claims that are untrue or distorting, whether on domestic or foreign soil.
March 24, 1933: (*13 . pg. 5): The infamous Enabling Law (Ermächtigungsgesetz[4]):
Art. 1: National Laws can be issued by the Government of the Reich.
Art. 2: Those laws may deviate from the Constitution.
Probably the most far-reaching (and effectively the last) Law passed by the Legislature. It had the effect of eliminating the function and authority of the Legislature. It made “laws” issued by the Cabinet, i.e. the NSDAP, “legal” for all practical purposes. It was a substantial justification for anybody’s future actions on behalf of the State or the Nazi Government under those “laws” (“...it’s OK to do it, the law says so...”).
It was to be a temporary measure for only four years, in order to “synchronize” (or “gleichschalten”[5]) the governing functions for a country that was in deep trouble and in almost hopeless political and social chaos. They gave it a noble title: “The Law to Alleviate the Distress of People and Country.”
A two-thirds majority was needed to change the Constitution. No longer a problem: President Hindenburg had released the Chancellorship to Hitler after the Reichstag fire, so now Hitler could keep out the Communists and enough Social Democrats from voting. The still remaining Social Democrats objected strongly, but Hitler shouted them down: “You’re too late! You’re no longer needed!”
The vote was 441 yeas to the 84 nays (from the Social Democrats.) The street fighters got the vote they wanted for running a dictatorship. By democratic means, democracy had lost (*3 - pg. 196-200.) in the name of “National Security.”
March 29, 1933: (*13 . pg. 6)
The NSDAP issues directives for the handling of a well-planned boycott of Jews that was directed toward professions such as physicians, lawyer, as well as against “Jewish goods,” This well-planned boycott action was, of course, presented publicly as a “spontaneous action of the people.”
Early April 1933: (*13, pg. 9 and pg. 7 -11)
“Gleichschaltung” resulted in immediate actions: in Berlin, the Public Health Insurance System was directed to no longer honor claims for treatment ordered by Jewish doctors. Jewish Jurists were dismissed, and were not allowed on juries, or even to enter Justice buildings. Teachers who were Jewish by race were fired. Jews in Frankfurt had to surrender their passports, and in Cologne, any Jews, even those who had converted to Christianity, or Aryans married to Jews, could no longer be in municipal offices. All Chambers of Commerce, Labor Unions, economic businesses, etc, now became subject to supervision by the NSDAP. Newly installed NS (or “Party”) “Commissars” had to see to it that those units were organized to conform to Nazi ideology.
April 7,1933: (*13 . pg. 12/13)
A major Law was issued which supposedly allowed only “Aryans” to remain in Civil Service jobs, but the eventual real effect was to remove any Jews from any job, pretty much at the discretion of their bosses. The law excluded World War (I) veterans. There were many subsequent regulations to this law, such as the specific inclusion of other professions, and inclusion of so-called half- and quarter Jews, but (on May 5) not “privileged” Jews. This law was eventually referred to simply as the “Aryan Paragraph” (Arierparagraph) when applied wholesale to other than Civil Service Employees, from physicians to chauffeurs, from lawyers to use of sports fields.
April 7, 1933: (*13 . pg. 13) Bavaria no longer admits Jews to Med Schools, and on May 12, Munich dissolves all Jewish Associations and seizes their property.
July 3, 1933: Admission as Stock Exchange Traders is limited to “honorable, trustworthy,” and (if stateless) to persons “of German descent.”
July 14, 1933: (*13 . pg. 38)
The “Law for the Confiscation of Property Hostile to People or State” applies to anything utilized for “Marxist or other anti-state” purposes. That could also be applied to the confiscation of property of Jews.
July 20, 1933: (*13 . pg. 39)
The Law concerning the dismissal of Civil Service Employees is expanded to include persons who have been members of or have been active in “Marxist Interests”, such as in the Communist or Social Democrat Parties.
July 26, 1933: (*13 . pg.42:
Emigration of people of Jewish descent is desirable, but subject to a sizeable tax called Reichsfluchtsteuer or “Reich Escape Tax.”
Sept. 22, 1933: (*13 . pg. 52)
Membership to a Kulturkammer (Cultural Camber = any culture-related association), had already excluded Jews. (Both of my father’s brothers had been active in the Berlin cultural life. This decree by the Chancellor’s office may well have been the reason for their emigration to France and the USA.)
Sept. 29, 1933: (*13 . pg 53):
Hereditary Farm Law: (Erbhofgesetz): The owner of a farm is called a farmer. Only honorable citizens of German or equal blood can be farmers. Nobody is considered being of German or equal blood whose ancestry after 1799 includes a Jewish or colored person.
Oct. 4,1933: (*3, - pg. 245):
One of the most significant laws: The Reich Press Law said that, aside from being Aryan, editors had to see to it that nothing is printed that might tend to weaken the Reich, the defense, or culture, and could offend the honor or dignity of Germany. [That, by edict rather than by business or market acquisitions, gave them all the propaganda tools they needed to spin or suppress any news according to the political value to the Party. It was soon applied not only to newspapers, but also to radio, film, etc. Don’t forget that “propaganda” was not a derogatory word, but in effect it was the title of Joseph Goebbels (“Minister of Propaganda”), who, by many accounts, was the most gifted, diabolical, and successful propagandists who had ever lived.]”
Speaking of Minister of Propaganda, Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior advisor, gives me the creeps. As Trump wants to be Hitler, Miller wants to be Goebels. It’s terrifying.
I miss my dad like crazy, but I am so glad he didn’t live to watch this catastrophe unfold.
January 20, 2021 can’t come soon enough.
[1] literally: “Folk Comrade” -- “Volk” used here in the Nazi meaning of “a racially pure society”
[2] The Nazis usually used the singular with the definitive article - “der Jude” - for Jews to designate a racial category, not a group of individuals.
[3] “Special Law for Jews in the National Socialist State”
[4] Literally: Empowerment or “Delegation of Power” Law
[5] gleichschalten is what is done to synchronize alternating currents, so that the outputs of, say, two AC generators have an additive, rather than reductive, effect.
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