A couple of weeks ago I posted an article that some might have misinterpreted. In that post I expressed anger at Left-wing Jews who have failed to grasp a vital lesson from the holocaust. I worry now that some might think my anger extends to the victims of the Nazi brutality. That could not be further from the truth. Throughout my life I have devoted every spare moment to the analysis of the causes of that inconceivable horror. I have looked at it from every possible perspective. I am entirely aware of how the Jews of Europe ended up accepting their fates with little or no resistance. That only makes the reality of the evil more substantial for me.

If I were Jewish I would want to give dignity in death to those 6 million who received no share of it in life. My personal opinion is that honor and prayer ring hollow when they come from inside the local temple. When the gates of the camps were finally thrown open in 1945 those who had survived were not thinking about getting back to their worship. They were looking back and saying, “never again!” And if I were Jewish I would leave no avenue unexplored that could lead me to understand how and why this evil rose up in nations that claimed to be civilized. The best possible way to honor the victims of the holocaust is to prevent genocide from ever happening again – not to Jews or to anyone else.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. I’ve heard that so many times in the last year or so that it is becoming truly annoying. On the other hand, I understand that this particular mantra is a positive sign that the people are awakening to the dangers that are slipping up on them. We are on the verge of losing our freedom, our democracy and the capitalist system that enriches us all. It could go further than that, too. It could go beyond 1984. It could go back to 1941. What we need now most of all is a review of points in history that relate to our present situation. What happened to the Jews of Europe under the Nazis is relative to what is happening now.

What did happened in Germany in the 30’ and 40’s anyway? I’ve read, “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”. I hardly remember a word of it. Historians love to look in every nook and cranny; no rock goes unturned in their pursuit of minutia. Personally, I have always found that history is best told by the people who lived it. In the eyes of any ethical human being Hitler was less important than any of the millions who died for his ego. Whatever the lowest of us experiences in life is equal to any of our experiences in the sum. The academic historian has a place for those among us who have a passion for lifeless facts but the plain truth is that each of us lives in his own moment of history. No historian can know everyone’s experiences. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Where are their stories in the sum?

I have looked at many of those personal stories. I have studied the fate of Europe’s Jews from bottom up and top down. While historians have studied Hitler, his cohorts and his adversaries I have found that the historical view that is most useful comes from the understanding of human nature under the specific stresses of the conditions of economic panic existing in Germany at the time. That is a big sentence that tries to simplify a complex problem. Essentially the whole thing comes down to Hitler’s instinctual understanding of what the people wanted most. By knowing that one fact he was a cinch to get control of the people. Now historians will tell you that Hitler became Der Fuehrer by putting the people to work and making the trains run on time. That may be true after the fact but what got him to the top in the first place? Were his promises to put people to work any different or better than those of his political competitors? No. What set Hitler apart was that he gave the people what they wanted above all else, someone to blame for their social calamity. He gave them someone to hate.

It is an odd thing when you look back through history that whenever a dictator succeeds in gaining control of a population he always does it by fostering hate. And if you look a little closer you will find that the hatred is always based upon some real or imagined class difference:

France? Did you know that “comrade” is a French word? There weren’t any ‘elites’ among the comrades of the proletariat were there? Nope. All the elites were stripped of their wealth and/or guillotined. And, boy, don’t we still just hate those elites?

Soviet Russia? Can anyone name a member of the elite or ruling class who survived the revolution? No comrade, you can’t. They were all hated, hunted down and shot.

Hitler pointed his finger at the Jews. They were in control of the economy, he said. They were the merchants and money changers who were making their lives so miserable. They were the elite. It wasn’t the least bit difficult to enrage the majority and turn up the hatred they already had for the minority Jews. Of all the emotions that clever dictators work to manipulate the one that most distorts reality is hate. Generally speaking dictators of the past have always understood emotional manipulation instinctually but a recent few have studied this form of evil with an eye to perfecting it. Think Saul Alinsky; think…. well…. just think.

But I still haven’t made it clear why I’m angry at the Jews. I’m angry because I know my history.

When fascism ruled Europe the nearest thing to a friend that the Jews had were the communists. Their constant drumbeat of equality earned that political faction the loyalty of the Jewish people. Unfortunately the communists were also viewed as part an elite class in Germany. They were seen as the educated elite. For that reason a true communist was assured of very much the same fate as a Jew and was of no more use to them than as a good conversation companion on the cattle cars. Still, a bond was formed between Jews and communists that remains to a considerable extent today.

I can forgive naiveté but I cannot condone it. “Never again” doesn’t mean never again at the hands of the fascist. It means never again at the hands of anyone. European Jews seem not have taken into account what happened to the Russian and Slavic Jews who died in the millions under communist rule. American Jews need to open their eyes right now and repeat after me:



FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE REDNECKS…..