‘..The plight of non-Nazi Germans in the summer of 1933 was certainly one of the most difficult a person can find himself in: a condition in which one is hopelessly, utterly overwhelmed, accompanied by the shock of having been caught completely off balance. We were in the Nazis’ hands for good or ill. All lines of defence had fallen, any collective resistance had become impossible. Individual resistance was only a form of suicide. We were pursued into the farthest corners of our private lives; in all areas of life there was rout, panic and flight. No one could tell where it would end. At the same time we were called upon, not to surrender, but to renege. Just a little pact with the devil – and you were no longer one of the captured quarry. Instead you were one of the victorious hunters….”
Sebastian Haffner. “Defying Hitler”
When I was stationed Germany during the 1970s I had a very nice and excellent English speaking landlord by the name of Werner Steiner who was a teenager in Berlin during the 1930s and said he watched what he called “The Hitler Revolution” from balcony of his parents’ house near the Ku’Damm in the downtown.
Werner’s man was professional in business and his mother was a doctor, very unusual for that period. Both his parents were Christian Democrats, conservatives, like Republicans in the USA and opposed the Nazis.
When the Weimar Republic fell, the family had to make their “Deal With The Devil” – Werner described it in these very words – in order to survive. The thing was that only Werner – out of three brothers and a sister, plus his mom and dad survived WW II. The two brothers were killed in the war and his mother, father and sister died at the family home in a British night air raid during 1944.
Werner credited his survival because of his capture towards the end of war by American troops.
Yes, the stories Werner told me about the rise of totalitarianism in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s give me a chill. Of course, Americans are not Germans and we have our tradition of revolution; however, I regret my feelings of superiority when I listened to Werner’s stories.
It can happen here.
“It can happen here.”
It sure can, Ronbo. I’ve long maintained that Germans didn’t possess some “evil gene” which made Nazism possible and the book reinforces that.
The dividing line between good and evil runs through each individual of whatever nationality. There are plenty of Australians (and Americans and Brits and Kiwis to name just a few) who would be willing enough to herd what the State designates as “enemies” into the cattle trucks.
@KG:
This link below is a must read to understand how the Nazis came to power and it dovetails nicely with what Werner told me many years ago.
Bottom line: The greatest Nazi victory was the conquest of the German mind in the 1930s.
Thankfully we in America are not at that stage….yet.
https://www.academia.edu/1266785/A_Review_of_Sebastian_Haffners_Defying_Hitler_A_Memoir_
@KG:
Have you heard of The Third Wave experiment?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave
An American teacher turns his students into Nazis
Interestingly, the movie version was recently made in Germany.
I just quoted from the book, Ronbo. Reading it right now, for the second time.
the Ferma camps in the USA are waiting are they not…for the dissenters and the non lefitsts? Or is it just myth? I wish…and it’s scary. It’s like a nightmare coming t life.
I don’t know if the camps are a myth or not, Lara. All I know is that if they do exist, I wouldn’t find it in the least surprising nowadays.
And that’s a worry.
The FEMA (concentration camps) are not fiction – there are numerous videos and pictures taken by patriots. They exist outside every large American city.
One youtube video is very chilling, as the concentration camp appears to be a death camp with complete with pipes running into several large warehouse style buildings that could be for the introduction of deadly gas to those inside.
This complex surrounded by razor wire and high fences is along side railroad tracks
I suppose the Homeland Security boys are learning their Final Solution Himmler.
There is no doubt these camps are federal property because the entries and fences have large signs saying “Federal Property” and “FEMA”…..
Scary. The One World Government has worked out that if they can control the American population there is nobody else to fear as the rest of us have all been disarmed. I fear that this is all going to plan – the EU, the UN, Climate Change, The Won, racial division, class division and income division. It is probably time for me to take up pig hunting and skeet shooting.
With semi-auto weapons, Mawm.
Youtube has lots of info in Fema camps. I believe they are real. What was World War Two for, if history is going to repeat and in larger numbers? More than scary. I would want to get out of the US…but where to?
There is nowhere else, Lara. If the U.S. falls, we all fall. Should it all come to pass, then liberty-loving people everywhere will have to travel to the U.S. and stand alongside our brothers and sisters.
No KG I don’t agree, you may be able to slow the course of history, but if the Empire is in decline the Barbarians will storm the gate come what may.
When Rome fell I’m sure people said- all is lost! Not so, we have had generations since then of men of honour.
From the ashes there will always be remnants of free men and liberty seekers that will provide offspring for future generations.
The problem of course is that the Barbarians are already in the Gates.Just ask any white Rhodesian or South African what help you can expect from the “West” when the chips are down, they disowned their own people.
I have very personal and bitter experience of the way the Brits sold out Rhodesia, Rivoniaboy. Bastards.
Perhaps my views are colored by the fact I’d enjoy one last fight before I shuffle off.
I have very personal and bitter experience of the way the Brits sold out Rhodesia,
Yeah, and we got a flood of “when-we’s” (really nice blokes though
).
SA has just had another ‘democratic’ election. The video below shows what happens when someone supports a party in opposition to St Nelson’s ANC. The same applies to ZANU-PF and most other post colonial African states.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=faa_1399643334
Bloody hopeless, Mawm. Did you read that brilliant piece over at Oswald Bastable’s place?
Yes. They’re a different species.
May as well be.