By: Dani Langevin – 2-23
What has been happening in America, past and present, concerns me very much. I see the U.S. heading down the Nuremberg path to destruction and dictatorship. America is looking more and more like Nazi Germany and we should all be concerned.
Prior to 1933, Germany enjoyed a multi-party republic just as we do here in America. Then came Hitler. By the end of that year, Hitler would become dictator, constitutional protections suspended, nationwide boycotts of Jewish goods and businesses instituted, Jews were prohibited from Civil Service jobs and “Un-German” books were burned. How does that compare to America? Shortly after Hitler’s rise, the multi-party republic that the Germans had enjoyed, no longer existed. In the US, we have two political parties hell bent on destroying each other.
One major political party refuses to accept the results of a legitimate election and both parties only speak about what’s “best for the party” and things that will or will not “get us elected or re-elected.” They, like Hitler, are concerned with getting elected only and staying in power-only!
In April of 1933, a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses was issued. They had to be turned over to Aryan owners. Jews couldn’t buy products from non-Jews and non-jews couldn’t buy products from Jews. In America, many look the other way or stay silent when someone refuses to serve a gay couple who would like a wedding cake or simply serve them. How about those patrons who refuse to go to an LGBTQIA owned business or worse, order a large quantity of what the business makes and then refuse to pick it up or pay for it? It can be devastating to a business. Yet, very few people say a thing. Because it’s, “Not my business.” YET!
Jews were banned and fired from Civil Service jobs and education, from both teaching and being a student. Here in America, we forbid Black Americans an education, banned Chinese immigrants from entering the country for 60 years, imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans during WWII, fired anyone suspected of being communist and/or gay from Civil Service jobs and education and, of course, there’s the three hundred years of slavery simply because of the color of a person’s skin. America was silent. One demographic in particular did little to nothing because it kept and keeps them in power.
In Germany, only 5 percent of students could be Jewish. For Jewish families, you either didn’t go to school or hoped your parents could afford private school. Here in America females weren’t allowed to go to higher education institutions, got fired if they got pregnant and couldn’t play school sports. Let’s not forget about the railroading of women and people of color when trying to get into college or a job they had the degree for or the centuries long ban of Black Americans from schools. Now, trans-Americans are being told they can’t work, learn or play sports in many instances. Smacks of Nazi Germany to me.
The Third Reich sterilized over 400,000 undesirables. So hasn’t America and we continue to do so. The Third Reich burned “Un-German” books. In America, there’s a whole movement to ban books about sexuality or those that allude to an alternative lifestyle. Hitler imprisoned criminals indefinitely, even if they had served their allotted time. In America, Nixon’s administration purposely and falsely got America to associate certain drugs with certain groups, filling our jails with non-violent black and brown people. Zero tolerance laws were passed, filling them more. White criminals seemed to be given a “,second chance,” while Black criminals had to “,be taught a lesson.”
In Nazi Germany, there was a call for “immediate and concrete segregation”. Do I have to speak of the legal segregation that existed and still exists here in our country? On Kristallnacht, German soldiers destroyed synagogues, homes and businesses and killed 91 Jews. Nothing was done to stop it. In the good old US of A, we’ve had 300 years of killing Black enslaved peoples, the Chinese Massacre, Zoot Suit riots, Watts, Rodney King, people dying who are unarmed and uncountable mass shootings at schools. Nothing is being done because a certain demographic in America values their guns more than their children. Much like the Nazis valued power over people.
In America we talk of “National Security” and the “American Way” and if someone sees this threatened, they immediately go into attack mode, “That’s un-American; they must be stopped, they must not be tolerated, they’ll destroy the American way!”
Germany had, “Laws for the protection of German blood and German honor.” Sounds the same to me. And what made you a German? If two of your grandparents were Jewish, you were of mixed race and could enjoy many of the benefits of a full German citizen. If you had three or more Jewish grandparents, you were Jewish and screwed. In America, if they found one drop of African blood in your lineage, be it 2 years or 200 years ago, you’re Black. Even Hitler felt America’s formula was too harsh and went the grandparent route.
Jews couldn’t vote. In America, anyone who didn’t own land, have white skin or a penis couldn’t. Today, black and brown people are still prevented from exercising their full voting rights. Still, little is done or said to change this fact. Marriages between Jews and non-Jews were forbidden and their marriages dissolved. In America, interracial marriages were illegal. Same sex marriages were illegal and there is still talk of turning that clock back. Inter-religious marriages were and still are discouraged.
German schools taught the superiority of Germans and the inferiority of Jews. Here in America, we are banning books and talk of alternative lifestyles. Big, burly, white men are threatening drag queen shows for children with violence. Which of those groups would do more damage? “Don’t Say Gay,” has become one state’s mantra. The message is clear: Heterosexuals are superior to the LGBTQIA community who are inferior and we must teach our children that in order to rid America of them.
The changes under Hitler in Germany were swift and incremental. The incremental piece is what made it possible. Take a little away at a time and no one will notice until it’s too late. Kind of like putting a frog in a pot of cold water and turning the heat up slowly.
It’ll be boiled before it notices the rising heat. In America, the changes are extremely slow but they’re happening.
Americans are being slowly corralled into proverbial concentration camps and they’re not even aware of it happening except for the people doing the corralling. ◊