One Hunnert Nazi Scalps

In the movie “Inglorious Basterds”, World War II ends slightly differently: members of the Resistance (including an American bunch of basterds) incinerate Hitler and the Nazi high command in Paris. This revisionist history movie is incredibly satisfying, at least to those of us who prefer when Americans were fighting Nazis, not kowtowing to them.

This post is in honor of D-Day, June 6, when the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy. I won’t go so much into the history of WWII, since there are many, many, MANY books and movies that have been made about that. I think in our current moment it’s worth recalling some of the principles of National Socialism (no, it wasn’t a socialist movement.) 

This is personal for me. The man in the picture here is my maternal grandfather, Robert E. Johnson. He was an officer in the US Army and fought against the Nazis: he was there on D-Day, and also at the Battle of the Bulge. My paternal side also fought against the Nazis; my great-uncle served in a PT boat.

I have a family history of fighting Nazis, and seeing people give the Nazi salute (and then claim it was a Roman one or whatever) does not sit well with me. Nor does the twisting of history to suit the current narrative, so let’s look at some facts.

Adolf Hitler is not someone to emulate

He was a weird little man, a failed artist, a vegetarian and a Christian. I’m going to lean on this point a little, because many Christians want to skip over this. I get that many sane people don’t want to be associated with Hitler, but religions, including Christianity, can be used for evil purposes. 

The Pope during WWII tried to negotiate with Hitler, refused to denounce him publicly, and also stayed silent about the mass genocide known as the Holocaust. 

The Nazi movement was explicitly Christian. They wanted a specifically Christian nation made up only of “real” Germans. Does that… remind you of anyone?

The context of Hitler’s rise was post-WWI Germany. The country had been defeated, and endured horrific real inflation in the following years. Germans felt their country and therefore themselves had been humiliated, so when this weird little man went around making speeches and talking about making Germany great again (cough), people listened. Including members of the German government, who thought they’d be able to use the weird man’s following for their own ends.

Anything seem familiar here?

Nazi principles also not the template to follow… if you’re a decent human being

How to make Germany great again? Well, you want to increase the number of “native” or “true” Germans and get rid of the others. It wasn’t just Jewish people who were singled out as not being real Germans, but also gays (including trans people and yes, they have always existed), Romani, and other marginalized groups. 

These types of groups are easy to condemn and usually too small to fight back, so they’re easy to demonize. Of course, immigrants don’t belong either. 

Before the Germans came up with the “final solution” of straight-up genocide, they urged these marginalized groups to leave the country of their own behest. (A certain TV ad featuring puppy killer Kristi Noem urging immigrants to leave or they’ll never be able to come back is coming to mind right now, can’t think why.) 

(Just a reminder that in the US, immigrants pretty much founded and popularized the movie business. Albert Einstein and philosopher Hannah Arendt were German refugees, contributing mightily to American culture and innovation as others did too.)

Germany enacted laws that declared members of these groups weren’t allowed to own businesses, forcing them to sell for reduced prices. Their art and money was confiscated.

Hmmm, now I’m thinking about the family that was raided by ICE recently. The criminals named in the warrant had long since left the home, but the agents forced the family to strip down to their underwear in the pouring rain, and took their phones, electronics, and money despite knowing they weren’t the people in the warrant. The family still hasn’t recovered their stolen items. Wonder why I just thought of that incident?

In Germany, marginalized peoples not consider “true” Germans were forced to wear clothing that identified them outright. For example, yellow stars for Jewish people and pink triangles for those in the queer community. Which eventually made it easier to round them up and kill them.

You might be wondering where the Nazis got all these dehumanizing ideas. In the United States, of course! They looked to our Jim Crow laws. That’s right, they wanted to find out how to dehumanize human beings and they went right to how Americans treated Black people. 

As a reminder, Jim Crow laws included voter suppression aimed at Black people: poll taxes, literacy tests, oppressive voter ID requirements, and the like. 

Now why did that come to my mind right now? That is so weird.

But still the Germans had a problem, because getting rid of the unwanted people doesn’t increase the birth rate all by itself. The woman’s role in society was “kinder, kirche, kuche”, which translates to “children, church, kitchen” because they believed that would result in more true German babies. (Huh.) 

Rigid gender roles are a staple in regimes that want to increase the native-born birth rate, especially for “purification” reasons. Enforcing those gender roles is a must, so in order to “protect women” you might send a man into a women’s restroom to accost a woman who has short hair or is wearing rather masculine clothing. You know, for example.

Of course, the reason the regime eventually reached the horrifying conclusion of the mass murder of millions of people is that it was enabled by random people living ordinary lives. “Good Germans”, as they were called. People who might have thought Adolf Hitler was a crass little failed artist but didn’t try to stop him acquiring power. People who lived next to the crematoriums and said nothing. Government officials who thought they could control the Nazi movement, before it turned on them. 

People who ignored the fact that others were being beaten and dehumanized because it wasn’t happening to them.

Some of them, though, were probably glad that the Nazis were getting rid of all these people who weren’t true Germans. They might have seen Jewish people or gays or whoever as less deserving of rights, or even outright poisoning “true” German blood. They might have joined the regime, but they also might have lost their lives through not being pure enough themselves.

We can do things differently

History may not repeat, but it often rhymes.

Like me, you probably weren’t alive during WWII. Or if you were, you were very young. So you might wonder, what would I have done during this time, especially if I were German? 

Would I have been brave?

Would I have spoken out?

Would I have tried to protect the marginalized?

Or

Would I have believed what the minister of propaganda was saying, despite all the evidence to the contrary?

Would I have tried to appease the rulers, even if I thought they were wrong, hoping to be spared?

Would I have defended “my side” to “own” Those People no matter the price to the country or myself?

Whatever you’re doing now is what you would have done then.