My late mother had grown up in Nazi Germany and left it when the Russian Communist took over. Dad was GI Joe in the US Army and brought her here from West Germany in 1956. The woman was more American than a lot of Americans in the way that she lived her life. Anyway, mom was very fortunate and had a wealth of information for me and all those that she knew here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. Typically, ordinary German citizens had to follow all protocols. Six days of school, compulsory Hitler Youth meetings (better attend or else!), then church (protestant mostly and it was best to go, regardless of all else), and of course the radio (no TV at the time) being the big media with Adolph Hitler screaming like a maniac about everything, along with the fact that you had to watch what you thought and said, both. One example that sticks out in my mind is one incident that I call, “The Wicked Hallway!” People in her residential building came and went up and down a staircase regularly without any problems. When one woman was walking down the stairs and a black uniformed SS Gestoppo soldier had come up the stairs, there was little room for both. Since there wasn’t, he decided to kick the woman square in the ass and she fell down the staircase. It caused her back pain ever since and they couldn’t do a damned thing about it, nothing. The authorities turned blind eyes to such things. Another was when my great great grandfather had said while playing cards and drinking with his friends one night. “Boy! This Hitler guy has got to go. Someone needs to put a Luger up to his head and pull the trigger.” The very next day, at three in morning, loud pounding was at his door. After opening up, an astute SS officer asked for him politely. He responded and they took him away, where no one ever knew, but later after the war it was revealed that he was most likely taken to a ‘labor camp’. That’s where they put political dissidents, gypsies and other Germans that didn’t ‘fit into the glorious Third Reich’ agenda. Prior to that, my mother and my grandmother (her mother) shopped at many stores owned by Jewish People. Systematically, and one by one, they disappeared without a trace. Although many saw them taken away by the ‘Men in Black’ (no relation to the movies of the same name), in unmarked trucks to wherever...they were simply gone. No one ever knew a thing. Shortly after those folks were out of the way, white graffiti and smashed windows followed. All the shops were thrashed and scribbled upon them was, ‘Jude’ (pronounced yew dah and was German for Jew), with the Star of David next to that. My mother was a little girl and had a hard time with all that. “Where are all our friends going and why are the stores demolished?” She asked her mother. “I don’t know, my child. I had a bad feeling about this when Hitler was up for election.” By the way, you voted either ‘Ja’ (German for Yes), or ‘Nein’, (German for No). My grandparents had voted ‘Nein’ and even came home with pinbacks for the same. Although they were fine, my grandfather was drafted into the German Navy. Before the war’s end, his ship was bombed by the Russian Air Force in the Baltic Sea and he was assumed to be KIA’s (Killed in Action). Before even that, the SS Gestoppo authorities had reservations about my mother’s name, Ruth. They claimed it to be Jewish. However, my grandfather showed up at their headquarters in his navy uniform and stated that, no, Ruth is not necessarily a Jewish name. He and they reviewed the Christian Bible and there is ‘The Book of Ruth’. A German SS officer reviewing that had turned and said. “You’re right, Herr Muller. The name is fine.” They shook hands and my mom was able to keep her name. That was how radical the Nazi’s were and assuming that they were right even when they were wrong.
The German people were overwhelmed by the radicals that supported Hitler. My mom said that they had been afraid of their own people for one never knew the fanatics from the ordinary citizens. In a nutshell, they were intimidated, compelled and uninformed. After the war, many had learned of the atrosities in concentration and labor camps and were appalled. No one ever knew. That was how good the Nazi’s were at keeping things in order and super secret. Get out of line and that was ‘you too’. To illustrate fear, there was a movie years ago that I watched on TV as a little kid. It was of course about Nazi Germany. After a bombing raid by the British on a factory, the workers sat outside curbside, refusing to go back to work as a result. John Banner (the lovable dufus sergeant in Hogan’s Heroes whom always said, “I know nothing...nothing!) had been different in the movie. He played an SS officer that had showed up with a ‘goon squad’ and a pick up truck with a handman’s noose on the back. He stood with both fists balled up on his hips and condescendingly said, “So. Your foreman says that you don’t want to go back to work, huh?’ They nodded slowly and sheepishly. “Well. That comes with a price. Who is willing to pay that price, ja?” Scanning the workers sitting down, he pointed and two SS soldiers picked up the unfortunate one and dragged him to the back of the truck, kicking and screaming. All were in awe and could only watch. They hung him and let him swing away. After that, the SS officer turned and said. “Who is to be next, ja?” Slowly but surely, hands in pockets and head lowered, the workers got up and went back to the factory as ordered. I talked to my mother about that one and she said. “Oh yeah! Those were the real Nazis. Not the bumbling ones in Hogan’s Heroes.” Wow! That always stuck out in my mind. That and the fact that when the Allied forces were marching into German, the SS Gestoppo goons had taken it upon themselves to arrest retreating Germany Army officers and the like, lining them up against walls and posts, shooting them like ‘pigs on a Saturday’. Cowardice in the face of the enemy was their rationale. Purely pathetic. They not only killed tens of millions of other people, they executed their own through no fault of their own outside of retreat, which in the military may be the only thing to do when getting defeated. Truly a negative and remarkable time indeed.
That is the case not only there, but throughout history with dictatorships run by tyrants. The lessons learned can never be forgotten nor forgiven. The German people, the average ‘Josef’ and such had little, if any, choice. Japan, the Nazi’s ally, had gone to bloody war in spite of the fact that forty percent of the Japanese citizens were totally against military aggression. They too suffered horrible fates as a result, such as Hiroshima and the like.
Although I am confident that ‘We the People’ shall prevail in the end, there are obstacles in the way that we must deal with and never allow something like that here in America. The Nazis and Communists would have loved Trump. There were many like him during those times and unfortunately, in this very time and this exact moment.
I can assure you that I and many others are in unison, some that don’t agree with me, fight the good fight regardless of this bunch we have now. It all starts with me, you and everyone in concert with each other. Learn from the past and the future will be a given!