After the First World War, in Germany a fanatical anti-immigrant, anti-semitic, racist, anti-communist ran for office. His candidacy was treated as a joke, because his politics were so ridiculously radical that no one in the right mind would vote for him, or so said the common wisdom of the day. He appealed to the lowest common denominator, he vilified members of a specific religion and demonized people of other races. He was fiercely anti-communist and claimed to be a Christian. He was a total joke. When he got elected, the common wisdom said "Oh it's not big deal, he'll get rid of the Communists and then we'll vote him out." He got rid of the Communists all right, then the Jews, the intellectuals, the free thinkers, the Gypsies, the handicapped, and then everyone who disagreed with him. Millions died because of him. Why? Because he was treated as a joke and no one except his insane followers took him seriously until it was too late to do anything but go along or die. And most people weren't willing to die to oppose him. Yeah, I'm talking about Hitler and despite the fact that the comparison is so badly over-used, in this case it is very, sickeningly fitting.
Other parents tell their kids to be good or Santa Claus won't give them presents. My mother told me to never say a thing against anyone with a different cultural, religious or ethnic background or I'd be branded as a Nazi. She told me I must never forget what he did or it'll happen again. And I didn't.
I didn't forget that he traumatised, tortured, murdered, dehumanised 11 million people. Doing something like that to one person is disgusting enough. But no, it was 11 f***ing million, most of them German Jews, German homosexuals, German writers and philosophers. They were part of a nation, and their loss is just as devastating to us as it is to their respective communities.
Other parents tell their kids to be good or Santa Claus won't give them presents. My mother told me to never say a thing against anyone with a different cultural, religious or ethnic background or I'd be branded as a Nazi. She told me I must never forget what he did or it'll happen again. And I didn't.
I didn't forget that he traumatised, tortured, murdered, dehumanised 11 million people. Doing something like that to one person is disgusting enough. But no, it was 11 f***ing million, most of them German Jews, German homosexuals, German writers and philosophers. They were part of a nation, and their loss is just as devastating to us as it is to their respective communities.
