Nazis

I am just back from a week long cruise, including Germany, Holland and Belgium. While in Germany we went to the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It was constructed as a prisoner of war camp but in 1943 part became a concentration camp. The original plan was to hold Jewish prisoners so they could be exchanged for German prisoners of war held abroad. Within a relatively short period 70,000 people died there, many from illness and lack of hygiene. The huts were rammed full of people, many couldn’t get inside away from the elements. Indeed after the liberation the huts were burned to protect the surrounding area from the diseases, such as typhoid.

when the British entered the camp they found 60,000 prisoners barely alive and 13,000 unburied bodies. This is on top of the numerous mass graves which are still there on the site. Its hard to fathom the amount of bodies buried compared to the size of the grave itself, thousands in graves that today would the space taken by 10 at most. There is a memorial stone for Anne Frank and her sister , who both died here. Its a stone, like many others there, that is a memorial but not an actual grave. Anne and her sisters mass grave is presumed but there’s no where that records who went there. The few records that there were got destroyed when the huts were burned.

Although the huts are gone you can see their footprint, you can see where the fence was and you can see numerous relics. There are memorials for all the races, religions and sexual preferences that died here. The site of the camps crematorium is still visible, a unit that burnt as many as it could cope with. In the end the British had to use machinery to clear the corpses left outside when they arrived. Scared about the potential spread of deadly disease they dead were often bulldozed in to mass graves.

A little down the road is the rail line that was used to ferry more and more prisoners in to Belsen. Due to the gap between Belsen and the station new inmates were forced to march to somewhere they presumably knew they would never leave. After the war numerous people who worked there or at other camps were tried and 11 were executed.

While we were there a company of Dutch soldiers was having a compulsory visit, in order to show what can happen . German children all visit one or other site for the same reason. The German tour guide had probably been there many, many times but was obviously very emotional. He made an attempt to separate Nazis from regular Germans. He tried to make them a separate race, not just a separate ideology. The site itself was very strange to visit. For one there appeared to be no wildlife or even birdlife once past the gap where the fence was. Even though there was little physically left it was easy to imagine the absolute horror that had been there only 80 years ago.

Which brings me to my point, calling other people Nazis based on how they act. I was told how Nazis acted in school 40 odd years ago and have now seen proof with my own eyes. The museum contains numerous pictures of the dead and dying, thousands of families who never found out what happened to their family members. There may be some in power who seem to ape certain parts of the Nazi ideology, nothing compares to this.

There are certain politicians who seem to be taking a circumspect route to a white only race. Not out right saying this but trying to discriminate at every other race or colour. This isn’t quite Aaryan race though, close for one or two of the more extreme. The much lauded Charlie Kirk was an outright racist among other things, Nazi is a bit much. Though he was racist, sexist and a homophobe , more using the bible to back him up rather than on instruction from a mad leader. There are of course some white supremist groups who wear swastikas and worship Hitler. In the main while wholly unpleasant they are like the KKK, mostly impotent.

Trump meanwhile is mixing his ideas to fit his own desperate grip on power. Restricting press freedom, demonizing opponents, trying to control media, conveniently forgetting the law and generally going for the North Korea way of governing. If Trump says something in his world it becomes a fact, even when its often not. Randomly knocking bits of the White house down, attacking boats he thinks carry drugs and taking classified documents home are a fraction of the crimes.

Hitler was an injured pilot from the first world war, he got the German public into a state of mind to feel hard done by enough to try again. Like Trump he tried to get hs public to hate all the groups he wanted to harm, unlike Trump most americans seem to be seeing through his lies. The advent of social media and 24 hour news makes it almost impossible to do what Hitler did. In Germany the public were fed propaganda about how the war was going. They were lied to about casualties and deaths but had little chance to discover the lie until it was too late. A very useful proponent of this method is Russia Putin. Making out they invaded Ukraine for their own safety and they are doing brilliantly. Both bits false but Russia’s government controlled media tells them what the boss says.

Trump is a very nasty piece of work indeed, he’s not Hitler though because society has changed. Trumps main playbook seems to be from George Orwell’s 1984. In the book the past is rewritten if it disagrees with the present. If a friendly nation becomes an enemy then history will soon say it was always like that. If he doesn’t remember saying something then he didn’t say it, not difficult at his age. If he’s shown documentary proof he said something it wont matter, he will claim its fake news. The same way that any difficult questions wont get answered and the asker gets insults.

If the question is to difficult then its because of the news network, not because Trump did something wrong. Hopefully by the mid terms enough of the Maga mindset will see they were conned. Although some don’t seem to care what he does or says, even if his provable lies are shown. Hitlers approach worked as there was little contrary information, now there is. Tariffs hurt importers, not the country sending gifts for example. This is a lie repeated almost daily, over time Trump has been a terrible businessman, how many great ones have bankrupted a casino?

He got back in to power largely because he wasn’t the other person. He promised many things, most haven’t happened. Including ending the war in Ukraine on day 1 and revealing all the Epstein files. He uses the bizarre argument of them not existing, being created by his opponents or too boring to reveal. He even said the famous birthday card he made for Epstein was created by his opponents to discredit him. He sent the card before he stood for president, the Epstein family kept the card and then gave it to prosecutors 12 years later. Some very careful time travel involved there, his present opposition inventing the card before they knew they needed it to show up Trump.

Extreme racism; opposition to a person or race, religion or sex echoes some Nazi ideals. Beyond an echo there isn’t much else, insults often go beyond truths, exaggeration is usual. Just remember the reality next time you call anyone a Nazi.