My great grandfather was an attorney in Germany in the 20s and 30s. In 1935, political opponents of the National Socialists were framed for the arson of the Reichstag. My Great Grandfather, Friedrich Roetter, agreed to defend the accused arsonists including the leader of the Communist Party of Germany, Ernst Thaelmann. For agreeing to defend the man, my Great Grandfather was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo for two months under "protective custody for the sake of the safety of the State." The paragraph below is from his account of his face to face experience with fascism.
Friedrich Roetter wrote:
"These methods of the National Socialists, including assassination, have often been defended even outside Germany with the argument that they were protective measures and therefore justifiable for political reasons. To my dismay people other than National Socialists occasionally hold the opinion that such conduct was reprehensible only when it did not apply to the Communists. My situation was appalling but the accused Communists should be harshly treated. My idea that everyone was entitled to the full protection of the laws was not admitted, nor was the resultant conclusion, that he who is put without the law has a right to use every means to defend himself. It was presumably not realized that such an attitude supported the National Socialist idea which subordinates law to politics. He who for the sake of justice defends innocent person, even though he does not shares that person's political views, is considered an enemy of the National Socialists.
The idea of justice has its ultimate foundation in the need to curb man's will to power. To this end certain common rules have been built up in all human societies in which the same ideas about mutual relationships of life obtain. They strive to bring about a condition in which the members of society place their observance higher than the exercise of irresponsible self-will, to the end of guaranteeing mutual trust and equality of treatment under the law. Yet when certain members of the society attain a position of dominance they lightly yield to the temptation to substitute their own power for law and justice. We can measure the evil comparing this weak substitute for justice with a mature system of laws."
After his release, my Great Grandfather arranged for his family to flee first to England and eventually to the United States. He escaped the day he was to be re-arrested for security reasons.
The Republicans have abandoned the rule of law for their own will to power. The current crop of Republicans are fascists in training. We must be ready to fight this assault on freedom. Extraordinary rendition, torture, and assassination are the tools of Republicans and Nazis, not Americans!
