![\"StLouisPorthole\". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:StLouisPorthole.jpg#\/media\/File:StLouisPorthole.jpg](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/11\/StLouisPorthole.jpg\")
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What does \u201cnever again\u201d mean? \u00a0We use this phrase to signal a determination not to let another Holocaust happen, another genocide, but then we Americans watch from a distance as killing occurs in one country after another. \u00a0partly because we simply don\u2019t want to get involved in foreign wars, and partly because it\u2019s not so easy to decide what constitutes a genocide which requires foreign intervention.<\/p>\n
And all this talk of Trump being \u201cthe next Hitler\u201d and his administration being fascists, and the Weimer-like fighting in the streets (because it wasn\u2019t just Brownshirts terrorizing the population, but were communists vs. Nazis fighting each other), as well as the fact that I find it creepy, at best, that people abroad are protesting, leads me to think about the fact that, well, you know the old saying of \u201chindsight is 20\/20.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, that and I want to get some distance from the inauguration and the protests, and see what the Trump administration\u2019s first concrete steps are.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s my question: \u00a0imagine you found yourself living 80-odd years ago, not knowing what the future would bring but having your modern convictions of equality, anti-fascism, etc. \u00a0And, no, you\u2019re not transported to Germany; you\u2019re transported to the U.S.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 1933. \u00a0Hitler becomes chancellor. \u00a0The United States is mired in Depression. \u00a0Not knowing anything about the future of Nazi Germany, how, if at all, would you respond to this event? \u00a0Would you march in the streets? \u00a0Support economic sanctions (to the extent that there would be any meaning to this in this pre-globalization economy)? \u00a0Increase immigration quotas for German Jews, or any European Jews, or even allow unlimited immigration?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 1936. \u00a0Nazi Germany hosts a successful Olympics, then turns around and, after the cameras are gone,\u00a0stepped up its persecution of Jews. \u00a0They are prohibited from civil service jobs, stripped of citizenship, and prohibited from marrying ethnic Germans. \u00a0Jewish children are removed from public schools. \u00a0Jewish businesses are\u00a0subjected to boycotts. \u00a0As an American citizen, how do you respond?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 1938. \u00a0Nazi Gemany has annexed Austria, and helped itself to the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. \u00a0Neville Chamberlain proclaimed \u201cpeace in our time\u201d because the British and French were so scarred by World War I that they wanted to avoid war at all costs. \u00a0Do you object?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 1939. \u00a0Nazi Germany has invaded Poland.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 1940. \u00a0Nazi Germany has invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and begun it\u2019s bombing campaign over England.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s June 1941. \u00a0Nazi Germany has invaded the\u00a0Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
Remember, I don\u2019t want an answer that \u201cknows\u201d that the Jews have to be rescued from their pending demise. \u00a0Given the \u201cfacts on the ground,\u201d and given the ongoing Great Depression in America at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight only in terms of a general sense of the importance of human rights,<\/em> how do you believe you would have reacted at the time?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Image: \u00a0\u201cStLouisPorthole\u201d. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons \u2013 https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:StLouisPorthole.jpg#\/media\/File:StLouisPorthole.jpg<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does \u201cnever again\u201d mean? \u00a0We use this phrase to signal a determination not to let another Holocaust happen, another genocide, but then we Americans watch from a distance as killing occurs in one country after another. \u00a0partly because we simply don\u2019t want to get involved in foreign wars, and partly because it\u2019s not so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[285,534,533,325],"class_list":["post-5887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holocaust","tag-hypotheticals","tag-nazi-germany","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n