THE LONG SHADOW OF NUREMBERG

“The thing we learn from history is that no one ever learns from history.”—Otto Von Bismark, German Chancellor, 1815-1898.

“Where one burns books, one will soon burn people.”—Heinrich Hein, German poet, 1797-1856.

It is impossible to visit the city of Nuremberg, Germany and not come away shaken.

At the eastern edge of the city, you can walk around the Nazi Congress Hall, a huge semi-circular structure that, once completed, was intended to look like a Roman Coliseum and seat over 50,000 people.  Once you’ve huffed and puffed your way around the half-finished stadium, you realize you’ve only scratched the surface of what once stood here.  The rally grounds, the Zeppelin Field, the crumbling reviewing stand, are all yet to be seen.  Over six square miles in all.  It would take you a half day to walk around all of it.

Hitler himself gave some of his most terrifying speeches here, to crowds of over 300,000.

300,000 cheering admirers.  A regular Nazi Woodstock.

It was here that the German Reichstag put into place the Nuremberg Laws, officially known as the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour,” which forbade relations between Germans and Jews, Blacks, and Roma (“the Gypsies,” to some people), as well as the “Reich Citizenship Law” which outlawed citizenship for anyone other than ethnic Germans or those of “German blood.”

It was here (as in 34 other cities) that Nazi adherents marched with torches and burned books that were deemed “decadent,” “immoral,” and “anti-German.”  This included texts describing homosexuality and transgender issues—along with the works of such nitwits as Albert Einstein.

If some of this makes you feel a little uncomfortable in light of current events—good.

Nuremberg was neither the headquarters of the Nazi Party (that was in Munich, Hitler’s old stomping grounds) nor the seat of German government (centered squarely in Berlin).  However, it was a city known as a hot bed of antisemitism and German ultranationalism.

How did Germany wind up with the Nazis?  It’s a complex question, and one that we ignore to our own peril today.  It begins with World War I.

The First World War, the conflict that was supposed to end all wars, took place between 1914 and 1918.  Four long, tortured years.

Most of the fighting took place in trenches in France and Belgium.  Hundreds of thousands of young men would charge out of the trenches, incurring enormous casualties.  They’d gain a few yards of ground, only to be driven back days later by the opposing side, who’d suffer an equal amount of carnage.

Incredibly, no fighting occurred in Germany.  No bombs fell on German homes.  No enemy was at the gate.  Other than food shortages, Germans had absolutely no way of knowing first hand their nation was losing.

When it was over, 9 million soldiers had been killed, 23 million others wounded for life, and over 5 million civilians were dead.  It was a war of attrition, and Germany gave up first. But to many, their nation’s surrender came as an absolute shock.

One of these shocked German was a non-descript army corporal (and failed street artist) who was recovering from a Mustard Gas attack.  He would later claim he was so dumbstruck by the surrender that he went temporarily blind.

In his view, there was no way the German army could have been defeated.  They had to have been sold out by traitors, foreigners, and corrupt officials.  He would later come to personify this group with an age-old scapegoat.

Jews.  They had screwed Germany.  And he was going to by-God do something about it.

Historians still argue about when Hitler’s antisemitism evolved into mass murder (it had been a Jewish German officer, after all, who’d earlier recommended the corporal for military promotion).  But there’s no question that it was Germany’s surrender—and its humiliating aftermath—that further incited his rage for Jews, Roma, Communists, Socialists, immigrants, and anyone not of German stock.

That is, anyone who wasn’t a “real” German.  No way were those outsiders going to “replace” real Germans.

The aftermath of World War I was a gut-punch to the German people.  Besides losing all of their worldwide colonies, much of their European territory, and most of their self-esteem, they were forced to pay off both their own war debt, and that of the France and Great Britain.  The economy began to crumble.

Germany had no choice but borrow money.  Lots of it.  And through a series of missteps, the nation entered one of the worst episodes of hyperinflation in history.

How bad was it?  At the end of the war, it would take 8 German Marks to buy one U.S. dollar.  By 1923, it took 4.2 trillion.  Go to work in the morning, labor all day, and get paid in money that was essentially worthless.

Slowly, the economy stabilized.  But in 1929, the Great Depression hit.  A hungry, humiliated nation was desperate for new leadership.  Most of the poor and working class supported far-left groups, such as the Communists.  This horrified the business community.  They coalesced around a small group of right-wing radicals called the National Socialist German Workers Party, and poured money into its political machine.

The Party also went by another name.  The Nazis.

Perhaps they greatest error we can make in trying to understand the Nazis is to believe they were somehow unanimously elected on a platform of “Let’s go out and kill all the Jews and take over the world!”  Instead, it was much more basic.  Something that hit home to an angry and demoralized nation.

The world is trying to destroy our German values, the Nazis warned.  We are the true guardians of western civilization, and the world is trying to water down our traditions with decadence and vulgarity.  Non-Germans are poisoning our blood and threatening to replace us.  Jews, communists, homosexuals, Poles, Slavs, and (of all people) Jehovah’s Witnesses are vermin, and a threat to our nation.  We’ve been bullied, laughed at, and disrespected long enough.  It ends now.

We’re going to Make Germany Great Again. 

And once they were in power?  The Nazis devolved into utter madness.

Nuremberg learned this, too.  On January 3^rd, 1945, over 500 British Lancaster bombers reduced most of the city to rubble.  Five months later the war was over.  The gigantic Swastika atop the Nazi reviewing stands was blown to pieces  

Of course, Nuremberg’s story doesn’t end here.  One of its few major public buildings to survive the bombing was the Palace of Justice.  The Allies selected it to house one of the most famous trials in history.

Over the next three years, a parade of Nazi defendants were brought to trial in Nuremburg.  Many were found guilty.  Some were executed.

For the first time, a new legal term was introduced to the world.  Crimes Against Humanity.  Crimes so heinous they were described as “deliberate acts, typically as part of a systematic campaign, that causes human suffering or death on a large scale.”  If you have not seen the award winning 1961 film Judgement at Nuremburg, it is well worth your time.

The judges and witnesses at Nuremberg hoped this would be the last the world would see of such crimes.  Of course, they were wrong.  The long shadow of Nuremberg still touches humanity today.

The year 2023 has seen its share of Crimes Against Humanity, and its perpetrators should be brought to justice.  Mohammed Deif, military commander of Hamas, and the terrorists who murdered and mutilated innocents in Israel should be tried as war criminals. 

So too should Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli commanders who have murdered innocents in Gaza and the West Bank by indiscriminately bombing homes, refugee camps, and schools, and even blocking food shipments while malnutrition worsens. 

Don’t forget Vladimir Putin, whose cruel war against Ukrainian homes and hospitals has left thousands dead, wounded, and freezing.

Will these criminals ever be brought to justice?  Who knows.

But let’s look closer to home.  The shadow of Nuremburg reaches our own country, as well.  When presidential candidates describe fellow humans as “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood of our country” it should send a chill through our hearts. 

When you hear immigrants and political opponents derided as “replacing real Americans” you should know what’s coming next.  Governors of Texas and Florida are already rounding up immigrants, shipping them to northern cities, and dumping them on the streets like so much garbage.

This is America 2023.  Not Germany 1935.

Or is it? 

Think about that when you cast your vote.

If one day you have the opportunity to visit Nuremburg, I hope you take it.  The city’s lessons will stay with you forever.

And just for the record, their beer and sausages are pretty good, too.

Happy New Year, everyone.  Here’s hoping 2024 will be a step forward for all of us.