Snippitts of Illusions

Hitler and Nazis are such visual examples of what evil is that people can almost make those comparisons cavallerly, if they see something as bad, evil or wrong then BAM! Hitler! BOOM! Nazis. It's easy to illustrate your disgust and how inappropriate those actions are by making those edge or your seat reactionary comments. Throwing up a meme on a social networking site, or a link to pundits who make those comparisons is an easy way to show that it's something that you do not approve of.

 I can't help think there's a healthy dose of ignorance as well when making these comparisons. Our current generation is fairly removed from World War II and the events that preceded it. There are still vets alive that served in the war, certainly and there are still many survivors of the Holocaust still alive, but they are at the end of their lives and by the time those that are children now are adults there will be none left. All we'll have are history books, museums, monuments and a handful of landmarks that played a part in the major drama of that war and everything it entailed. Plenty of examples, but nobody directly connected to the events by actually having been there. It's one thing to read war stories (or any stories for that manner) in an article or a book. It's another to get the emotional connection by actually talking to the person. Soon we'll not have that. And while documentaries will certainly fill in some of that hole, by at least showing the emotional response of the individual, it's different also knowing that's your grandfather, or uncle and mother.

Obama's most recent actions have garnered this sort of criticism and comparison (as have some of his past actions). Disagreeing with this actions, and commenting on them is healthy to political discourse. My opinion on the matter isn't really the topic of this blog. I do have some opinions, naturally, and it's probably no where near what you the reader is thinking it would be, but I'll save it. This isn't about the gun debate, nor is it about healthcare or the budget. I don't want to discuss any of that. What this is about is understanding exactly what you are comparing when you hold up an individual, in a position of power and compare them to Hitler, who is regarded as one of the most despised men of history, and how making those comparisons does not simply illustrate your dislike of the actions but actually contributes to cheapen the memory of those events in the broader public eye. 

But first a little background...

Hitler was a Catholic, an art student, a homeless person and soldier. But most of all Hitler was an antisemitic. His hatred of Jews grew over years, as a student, the time when he was homeless, and as a soldier fighting in World War I, but it escalated with Germany's defeat after the war.  He wasn't alone in his hatred of the Jews, antisemitism was widespread through out much of Europe during the early part of the 20th century. It waxed and waned through the centuries but during and after the Great War ended there was a general sense of loss and angst through out Germany. The idea was spread that the war was lost because of protesting and anti-war sentiment back home and much of the blame for that was laid at the feet of the Jews and communists (which was gaining popularity during this time as well.)

During the first tumultuous year of the new German Democracy (The Weimar Republic) there were large protests and riots between communists and anti-communists and many communists were rounded up and executed.Hitler had named fellow soldiers that he suspected were communist or communist sympathizer and this action got him reassigned to the intelligence department of the army. While investigating one of the many small political parties that had cropped up during the course of the post-war turmoil he found a small group of like minded antisemitic individuals and decided that the German Worker's Party may be a political platform to help launch and implement his own personal beliefs.

Hitler, was talent-less and ineffectual but had a gift for making speeches. This ability and his irrational and passionate hatred of Jews and communists quickly propelled him into the leadership position of the party. His knack for public speaking not only increased the members rolls, but also increased the parties coffers immensely and the 25 philosophical points of the Nazi party appealed to a lot of Germans, particularly those dissatisfied with the government and those who felt threatened by communism.

As the people of Germany continued to be dissatisfied with the Republic, primarily due to high inflation, unemployment and a general morose feeling of betrayal when the government agreed to pay back the outstanding war debt to France and Great Britain. Hitler saw his chance to over throw the government. In 1923 Hitler and 2000 Nazis and their supporters marched on the Bavarian city of Munich taking over a beer hall and trying to force the leaders of the city and province to relinquish control to the Nazis. This coup was repelled by the government, and Hitler was tried for treason. He used the trial to speak out publicly against the government and Jews, and reiterate the Nazis platform of German nationalism. This only gained him more support and he only served 9 months in prison due to a lenient sentence from the judges. He used the time to pen the first volume of his book Mein Kampf.

Hitler reorganized the Nazi's strategy after his release from prison, deciding to use his talents as a public speaker and strong nationalist propaganda to win over the population to the Nazi party. For the next several years Hitler and the Nazi party gained support through out much of German, and when the Great Depression caused the  Republic  to quickly descend into turmoil and anarchy it allowed the Nazis to try to take over the government via the democratic process. With the government in shambles President Hindeberg dissolved the current government and moved to hold new elections. Hitler and the Nazis launched an intense campaign and gained 107 seats of the over 650 seats in the Reichstag in 1929.

The government continued to struggle through the next 4 years, the Nazis becoming more and more popular as their organization seemed to have a plan to get the country out of the mess it was in. Coupled with a strong sense of national pride and a convenient scapegoat they became more relied upon by the common citizen and garnered considerable popularity with industrialists and upper class. Aldof Hitler saw his chance and decided to run for President in 1932, losing to the incumbent (who only ran to keep Hitler out of the position). Despite his loss the next year in 1933 the Nazis received a majority with 44% of the total seats. President Hindeberg after appointing several people the position of chancellor finally conceded to the popularity of the Nazis and appointed Hitler the position in 1933 and shortly there after died. Hitler quickly took over the government naming himself Furher and  dissolved all other political parties and began the persecution of the Jews that eventually became the Holocaust. 

From there we have a basic idea of what happened, even that above is just basic, Hitler went from an incredibly mediocre nobody to the most powerful man in Europe in a little under 15 years. People wonder how the Nazis could have come to power, pointing at coercion and violence as the primary tactics, failing miserably these days to recognize the use of propaganda and the cult of personality that revolved around Hitler himself. While violence and fear were certainly in the Nazis dossier of tactics -Dachau was originally built for political dissidents operating for 5 years in that manner before the Nazis began the wholesale destruction of the Jews- it wasn't the primary volume in Nazi's tactics to win over the German people.  While our own government (and every government in existence in this day in age) uses propaganda to an extent there has not been an individual with the level of Hitlers talent for public speaking or an organization with the such an effective approach to propaganda  Hitler stood out in one other way with his signature hatred for a single group of people.

That, the last sentence of the above paragraph is the crux of the matter. Hitler hated. He hated so passionately that he infected an disillusioned country to that hatred. While political detractors were rounded up and executed, that pales in comparison to what Hitler did to the Jews, Rom, and homosexuals in Germany and in every country he conquered.

This kind of evil exists today. These sorts of actions still happen and have happened time and again by different groups of individuals from the end of WWII till nearly today: Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Stalin, the list is extensive and it goes on and on both before and after the Second World War.  But the one that still stands out, the one that still eats away at our minds is the Holocaust. This is the first time that modern society has seen life treated so cheaply. Seen that sort of destruction first hand and could lay their hands upon it. Could smell, hear and feel the cruelty. This is the first time where it was one man's single minded hatred that caused this horror and we were able to bear witness to it.

I visited Germany just after my senior year in high school, part of the tour was a visit to Dachau. I almost didn't go. The idea made me sick. The thought paled in comparison to the place. The barracks the prisoners were housed in are gone. A replica stands so that tourists may tour and see the incredibly inadequete living conditions that the prisoners were subject to. There was a faint stench of death there, and of human misery, and at one point I almost buckled in a weeping heaving mass. I didn't. Some how I managed to make it through the better part of tour without weeping, but just barely. That was in 1995. The faint smell of death was still present even after 50 years at that time. I suspect it's still there. That's what evil is. That's what Hitler and his group of remorseless sociopaths left in their wake. Hatred like that still exists, but it's not as organized as the Nazis.

It's that fact alone, the single minded hatred, that makes comparing our current president, or any of our past presidents to Hitler or the Nazis ridiculous. Hitler certainly loved the prestige and glamour that power got him, read any of the links above you can see that, but his end goal ultimately was the destruction of the Jews. Seeing a President pose with children or try and pass through congress laws that you and I may disagree with does not equate him to Hitler, nor does signing executive orders or giving speeches to a crowded auditorium. Every time that equation is created, you blur the line just a little for the next generation of what exactly evil is.