"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," and it is most commonly attributed to the philosopher George Santayana.
When I first learned about Hitler, the Third Reich, the concentration camps, the gas chambers when I was 12, I was horrified. It hit me harder than learning about the atom and hydrogen bombs.
Being Jewish, it really did a trip on me. But while my Jewish friends were focused on the gas chambers, the barbed wire, the firing squads, the Holocaust, I wanted to know exactly how it came to be.
I've spent more than 50 years reading on the Weimar Republic and Hitler's rise to power. I've read countless biographies of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Goering, their wives, etc. I've read firsthand accounts by journalists. I've read testimonials of Germans who lived through the Third Reich. I've visited Germany and Austria. I toured Dachau. I toured a synagogue that is maintained in its state of ruin since Krystl Nacht. I even witnessed unrepentant Nazis and their children singing Hitler fight songs in the middle of the woods.
And I knew the signs when they appeared here. Reagan dividing Americans into "Us and Them". Redistribution of wealth. Destruction of the Middle Class. Shrub with his tendency to execute rather than pardon despite his Born-Again Christian parody. Making anyone from the Middle East appear to be terrorists. And Trump. Don't get me started. He's the cake and the rest are icing.
= new reply since forum marked as read