TWO SUMMERS AGO, I had the chance to visit the German towns where my parents met and were married. One of the towns is Northeim in Lower Saxony, about an hour south of Hannover. During my parents' teenage years in the 1930s, Germany's newly appointed Chancellor was granted authority to remake the country. First, he was given unchecked powers to rule by decree, no parliamentary or court approval needed. Second, he proclaimed a "Gleichschaltung" or an across-the-board coordination of how "true" Germans should behave and believe. It led to steps that penetrated all aspects of social, cultural and political life and that singled out those that might object to being told how to think and act. Everyone was to march to the same beat. Those who failed, or were reluctant to abide, would be goaded, or threatened by whatever means.
My parents, and their parents, were among the families in Northeim and surrounding villages that backed the ideology of the National Democratic German Workers Party and its fiery leader. The Nazi party in Northeim took root fast in the 1930s, when Germany was economically in ruins and run on a barter system of trading this for that. My grandfather ran a hotel in Northeim frequented by Nazi leaders and German soldiers. My mother was a cook there, my father a soldier on the front. They never joined the party, but supported early efforts to improve the economy and their own lives. More than half the town's residents backed the Nazis and believed their propaganda, noted William Sheridan Allen in his book about the town. My mother, in her remembrances of those times, said she and all the others were "brainwashed".
Today, in America, the country that my immigrant parents called home for most of their lives, I fear for the future. Our leaders, like populist puppets, follow the autocratic playbook of the past in singling out people who oppose the president, or accuse of being criminals, illegal aliens, or simply troublemakers. We are hesitant to apply the German experience to this type of political game, primarily because Americans firmly believe they are better, good and decent people. And perhaps we are.
Yet if my parents and grandparents were still alive to experience how our country's leadership orders federal agents and local police -- and now America's armed forces -- to go after civil protesters, paperless immigrants, and inquisitive journalists, they would be shocked to see the old playbook alive and accepted by so many witnesses. Firms are blackballed, universities threatened, journalists tazed, voices silenced, Senators cuffed and our leaders sigh and lie. Timid legislators acknowledge that fear rules the day. Voters retreat to echo chambers, not libraries, to parrot the "news" from opinionated talking heads. An uneven Supreme Court grants immunity to a twice-impeached president who seeks to paint America's White House an ugly red.
In the days and weeks ahead, the chaos, fear, and manipulation will continue, in one form or another, because that is what will keep everyone on edge. Dictators follow the same old playbook as long as they can. Germany's darkest path lasted twelve years and we know where it ended. If not corrected, our road ahead could lead us to think and act in ways we never imagined possible. All in the name of making America great again.
