I am going to devote several closers to the
sharing from the book "They Thought They Were Free - the Germans
1933-45" by Milton
Mayer.
"And
Kronenberg, so old and changeless, off the main line and Autobahn, is
conservative even for Hesse, But its very conservatism is a better guaranty of
the Party's stability that the radicalism of the cities, where yesterday's
howling Communists are today's howling Nazis and nobody knows just how they
will howl tomorrow. A quiet town is best."
As we witness
the media spin on the current events, as we listen to the politicos expound
their opinions, as we look toward 2012 - Mayer's insightful journey through the
experiences of 10 members of the Kronenberg community as they experienced life
during the beginning and the end of Hitler . . . we would do will to learn and
become informed and above all - never stop questioning and thinking.
The passage from Milton Mayer’s book “They
Thought They Were Free-the Germans 1933-45” I have chosen for this
evening points to the separation or invisible wall that facilitates societies
“handling” of certain issues.
Considering the question, what did the Germans really know regarding the fate
of the Jews? Mayer writes:
“The fact is, I think, that my friends really didn’t know. They
didn’t know because they didn’t want to know; but they didn’t know. They could
have found out, at the time, only if they had wanted to very badly. Who wanted
to? We whites – when the Negro moves away- do we want to find out why or
where or with what he moved?"
Now, let us imagine that the Jews are
emigrating from America, as fast as they can. They liquidate their
assets, at whatever loss, and collect such debts as are collectable in a week
or a month. Small debts they don’t bother with. ……..What I can’t avoid
wondering is whether my Jewish dentist or doctor or shopkeeper is thinking of
emigrating, winding up his affairs, closing his office or shop, selling out . .
. I’m a nice fellow, too, so I say, “I’ll pay when I can.” But I won’t. I won’t
have to. And I know I won’t have to, although in my waking, honorable
hours I may not know that I know I won’t have to. But-oh, if that doctor
and his bills, that dentist and his bills, only didn’t exist.”
Social awareness, community awareness,
neighborhood awareness are things that make us unique from the Germans.
Their conservatism held privacy and stability in high regard. What
do we really know about our community, our state, and ourselves?
Education
“In history, in biology, and in economics the teaching program was much more
elaborate than it was in literature, and much stricter. These subjects were
really rewritten. They had to be. But literature could not so easily be rewritten
to order. The rewritten subjects were the worst nonsense, and, of course, the
cynicism of the teachers and the better students was worst there. Every student
had to take a biology examination to be graduated, and the biology course was a
complete distortion of Mendelianism to prove that heredity was everything; such
technical materials were most effective, of course, because the student had
never met them before.”
“But mathematics was the most interesting case. You would think
that nothing could be done with such a ‘pure’ subject, but just this subject
was handled very cleverly, and I often wondered who in the Party was so clever.
I remember well, because Eva, my wife taught mathematics. The problems to be
assigned were all given, but they would almost all be taken from such subjects
as ballistics or military deployment, or from architecture, with Nazi memorials
or monuments as examples, or from interest rates – ‘A Jew lent RM 500 @ 12%
interest. . . .’ – or from population ratios. The students would be given the
problem of projecting population curves of the ‘Teutonic,’ ‘Roman,’ and
‘Slavic’ peoples of Europe, with the question: ‘What would be their relative
sizes in 1960? What danger do you recognize for the Teutonic peoples in this?”
This was from the author’s discussion with one Herr Hildebrandt, a
schoolteacher. It is not as though we have not seen similar occurrences –
with attempts to introduce “Creationism” as an alternative to “Evolution” in
our own school systems. It was in the small things that NSDAP infiltrated
the life of the ordinary man. Worked then—are we inoculated from such
influence today?
I did not intend to post anymore from Milton Mayer's
book They Thought They Were Free-the Germans 1933-45 but this one is just too good not to post.
"What happened here was the gradual
habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to
receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was
so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people
could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand
it, it could not be released because of national security.........This
separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so
gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even
intentionally) as a temporary measure or associated with true patriotic
allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real
reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion
underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and
remoter."
G'Nite Y'All. Rest well. The coming year is
calling from just a few short weeks away.
Prepare your mind and spirit. Hope
you rest well and stay warm. G’Nite Y’All. Peace.
"And Kronenberg, so old and changeless, off the main line and Autobahn, is conservative even for Hesse, But its very conservatism is a better guaranty of the Party's stability that the radicalism of the cities, where yesterday's howling Communists are today's howling Nazis and nobody knows just how they will howl tomorrow. A quiet town is best."
Considering the question, what did the Germans really know regarding the fate of the Jews? Mayer writes:
“The fact is, I think, that my friends really didn’t know. They didn’t know because they didn’t want to know; but they didn’t know. They could have found out, at the time, only if they had wanted to very badly. Who wanted to? We whites – when the Negro moves away- do we want to find out why or where or with what he moved?"
Now, let us imagine that the Jews are emigrating from America, as fast as they can. They liquidate their assets, at whatever loss, and collect such debts as are collectable in a week or a month. Small debts they don’t bother with. ……..What I can’t avoid wondering is whether my Jewish dentist or doctor or shopkeeper is thinking of emigrating, winding up his affairs, closing his office or shop, selling out . . . I’m a nice fellow, too, so I say, “I’ll pay when I can.” But I won’t. I won’t have to. And I know I won’t have to, although in my waking, honorable hours I may not know that I know I won’t have to. But-oh, if that doctor and his bills, that dentist and his bills, only didn’t exist.”
Social awareness, community awareness, neighborhood awareness are things that make us unique from the Germans. Their conservatism held privacy and stability in high regard. What do we really know about our community, our state, and ourselves?
“In history, in biology, and in economics the teaching program was much more elaborate than it was in literature, and much stricter. These subjects were really rewritten. They had to be. But literature could not so easily be rewritten to order. The rewritten subjects were the worst nonsense, and, of course, the cynicism of the teachers and the better students was worst there. Every student had to take a biology examination to be graduated, and the biology course was a complete distortion of Mendelianism to prove that heredity was everything; such technical materials were most effective, of course, because the student had never met them before.”
“But mathematics was the most interesting case. You would think that nothing could be done with such a ‘pure’ subject, but just this subject was handled very cleverly, and I often wondered who in the Party was so clever. I remember well, because Eva, my wife taught mathematics. The problems to be assigned were all given, but they would almost all be taken from such subjects as ballistics or military deployment, or from architecture, with Nazi memorials or monuments as examples, or from interest rates – ‘A Jew lent RM 500 @ 12% interest. . . .’ – or from population ratios. The students would be given the problem of projecting population curves of the ‘Teutonic,’ ‘Roman,’ and ‘Slavic’ peoples of Europe, with the question: ‘What would be their relative sizes in 1960? What danger do you recognize for the Teutonic peoples in this?”
This was from the author’s discussion with one Herr Hildebrandt, a schoolteacher. It is not as though we have not seen similar occurrences – with attempts to introduce “Creationism” as an alternative to “Evolution” in our own school systems. It was in the small things that NSDAP infiltrated the life of the ordinary man. Worked then—are we inoculated from such influence today?
"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.........This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."
G'Nite Y'All. Rest well. The coming year is calling from just a few short weeks away.
Prepare your mind and spirit. Hope you rest well and stay warm. G’Nite Y’All. Peace.
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