Today's a special day, of sorts. No, it's not a holiday, and in these parts nobody is celebrating, I can assure you. For better or for worse, most younger folks don't even know that it is a day worth remembering. No, it's not National Fluffy Bunny Day nor some celebrity's birthday, it's what was once known in the US as VE Day (that is, Victory in Europe Day). It was on this day, 69 years ago that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies ending World War II in Europe. (It's good to remember when wars are ended. It's too bad that they have to start in the first place.)
As with most commemorations of this sort, it's all done for the wrong reasons. We like to celebrate victories (if that's what they are) even if these victories are pyrrhic (and if you don't know what I just said, look it up). Don't get me wrong, it's good that the Nazis were stopped. What I'm troubled by is that we didn't stop them before they got started.
We love to blame the Germans. Really. The Nazis, the Holocaust ... their militarism in the First World War ... yes, there are lots of reasons to look down on them. Sure, we have a bit of a problem with the fact that they are now successful (in relative terms), build great cars, love the environment and solar energy and nature, but when push comes to shove, we can always pull out the "Nazi" card. We certainly don't want anybody getting uppity.
To be perfectly honest, I'd have less of a problem with all of this, if we non-Germans weren't so holier-than-thou about it all. Really. Many, many Americans loved Hitler and sympathized with the Nazis. Even today, as recent events have shown, anti-Semitism and hatred of the Jews is still a motivating force; the Bush family got wealthy catering to the Nazis banking-wise; the world tolerated them right up until the war; how many people even today would welcome a strong leader (Führer) to take charge and protect them from their own freedom? In the center of it all, of course, are the Jews, but who among us knows the difference between the ethnic group, the adherents to a particular religion, and the State of Israel, three very different, very distinct entities? No, we'd rather lump and stomp. It's all so much easier that way.
Yes, we like to think that "it couldn't happen here", that what happened in Nazi Germany was a "German thing". Unfortunately, it's not, it was a human thing. People who are downtrodden look for strong leaders. People who feel betrayed, look for a savior. People who feel they have nothing left to lose look to someone else to get them out of their misery. And, the easiest way to do that, of course, is to appeal to humanity's most base instincts: I have got to be better than somebody (anybody) else.
It was not a flaw in the German culture or character that allowed Hitler to come to power. The very same overarching, being-suppressed-but-feeling-superior, isolated and lonely feeling is more than present in Americans today. When someone can demonstrate to me the difference between "We're #1" and the Master Race, between "My country right or wrong" and "Deutschland über alles", between the imperialism the US demonstrates to the world and that which the Nazis failed to achieve ... well, then, I suppose, I'll think about this all a bit differently. Until then, however, I'll just note the day with a sense of bitter-sweet humor.
It can happen anywhere ... and some places more probably than others. And the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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