The following is an imaginary conversation .. that I think might have taken place in 2012.
A father and his 15 year-old son are looking at photographs.. some old; some new.
(A picture of American soldiers in camouflage clothing, holding weapons.. with some sort of "SS" symbol with the U.S. flag, in the background.)
Son: "Dad, why are some people upset about this picture?"
Dad: "The "SS" symbol was used by fierce Germans who committed horrible atrocities some 70 years ago. They were called Nazi Storm Troopers."
Son: "What kind of atrocities did the Nazis commit?"
Dad: "They attempted to destroy whole races of non-German people. What they did is called genocide."
Son: "Who were those races they tried to destroy?"
Dad: "Mainly, it was Jews. But they also tried to destroy Gypsies, Poles, Russians and other people they thought were inferior beings."
Son: "Why did they think these people were inferior beings?"
Dad: "Their leader had convinced the German people that they were the vanguard of a "Master Race" which he planned to create. To do so, he convinced them that they needed to eliminate persons who he felt did not belong in this new idealistic future. This meant that in addition to eliminating those in "inferior" races, people with chronic diseases, children with deformities, inmates of mental institutions, dwarfs, midgets, and those with "ugly" features also had to be eliminated from the gene pool. Today, we call this 'racial cleansing.'"
Son: "Who would then be left in this 'Master Race'?"
Dad: "Son, picture in your mind, tall, blond, blue-eyed movie stars. Also, handsome people with "clear eyes", "perfect" noses, and upright stature."
Son: "Wouldn't that be a boring world to live in?"
Dad: "Yes."
Son: "How did they try to accomplish this? It sounds like a crazy thing to do."
Dad: "They were well along their way to accomplish this insane program by the time that they were stopped and defeated in 1945. Take a look at this picture."
(Picture of a series of one-story buildings surounded by barbed wire. A large smokestack can be seen surmounting a brick building.)
Dad: "This is a picture of a 'Death Camp'."
Son: "What does that mean?"
Dad: "The Death Camp program was supposed to be a "Final Solution" to what the Germans called 'The Jewish Problem'. An earlier "solution" was to just march Jews to a location where mass graves had been dug, and shoot them. The Nazis felt that this was "inefficient" and decided on the "Death Camp solution" .. Let me give you an illustration of how a Death Camp was used:
German SS men would enter a village in Poland or Russia that housed mainly Jewish residents. They would make it known that the people were going to be relocated to a new place where they could resume normal lives. The villagers were not able to resist because the German troops were heavily armed. If anyone did try to resist, they were shot dead on the spot.
The people were herded onto trains.. usually boxcars.. and taken to one of these camps, where they were separated into groups of potential "workers" and "others." The "others" were women, children, the elderly, and the infirm. The "workers" would be taken somewhere else to work in the German war effort. The remainder were told to strip for a refreshing shower.. it was a "shower" of poison gas! Before being carried to the crematory in the building with a big smokestack, gold rings and teeth were removed from the bodies, and some interesting tatoos were cut off to make lampshades for camp officers."
(A picture of a pile of hundreds of baby shoes, left behind as the babies were carried into the building for their "shower.")
Son: "Dad... this is crazy. I can't believe all this. I'm studying German in school and we are learning about famous German geniuses like Goethe, Schiller, Bach, and Beethoven. What you are saying doesn't make sense to me. How can there have been savage Germans like you are talking about?"
Dad: "Son, of course, not all Germans were like this. Adolph Hitler was a crazy man who had taken complete control over Germany in 1933 and assembled groups of mentally deranged criminals, masochists, and serial killers to carry out his irrational wishes. He demanded absolute obedience from everyone and was feared by all. Hitler established a 'Third Reich,' a "Kingdom" that he predicted would rule the entire world for one thousand years."
Son: "What happened to Hitler's 'Third Reich?'"
(A picture of the city of Aachen in 1953.. 8 years after the end of the war.. still with burned-out skeletons of destroyed buildings.. with old men and women pushing wheelbarrows, picking up bricks.)
Dad: "Hitler tried to expand his "Kingdom" by invading nearby countries, starting in 1939. He started the Second World War, which resulted in the death of 50 million Europeans.. and the "elimination", in Hitler's words.. of 6 million Jews.. and other "undesirables".. again, in his words. Other countries, including the United States fought and defeated Hitler's forces, and in 1945, his "glorious Third Reich" lay in ruins."
Son: "Dad, I'm scared. Can that happen in the United States?"
Dad: "Yes.. unless we guard the liberties guaranteed to us by the founders of our country."
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This was an imaginary conversation, but one that I feel may have taken place. The people who lived through World War II are dying out.. and there are young people today who have no idea who Hitler was and what he did. I lived through it as a child, and I served in Germany for almost 4 years during the 1950's. I was in the Air Force and I got to know some German civilians quite well.
In spite of that, I still could not figure out how Hitler got to power in a Country like Germany, the home of great composers, philosophers and religious figures. What happened?
To try to find out, I purchased one of the "Great Courses" audio courses: A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition, taught by Professor Thomas Childers of the University of Pennsylvania.
The Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, the Weimar Republic, the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, the Night of the Long Knives, Mein Kampf, Krystal Nacht, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, ... these are all subjects covered in a series of 12 lectures. Some of these lectures astounded me... some made me cry... none made me laugh.
There is only one word to describe what happened to Germany, the Jews, the world.. because of this maniac named Adolph Hitler... unglaublich! unbelievable!... however, it did happen and our children should be taught about it in school, because, if mankind does not remember what happened, it could happen again!
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