Could It Happen Here?

Had I visited Mauthausen, the Nazi concentration camp near Linz, Austria, a decade ago I would have thought it was a totally alien place. From another century. From another political system. From another culture. Out of somebody else’s history. As if plopped down on earth from some other world.

But when I visited it with my friends in a cold, driving rain last month it seemed all too real. We were there less than two weeks after Donald Trump, who could well be President again in a little more than a year, called his political opponents “vermin” and after his campaign spokesperson promised that they would be “crushed” out of their “miserable existence.”

So, do I think it could happen here? My equivocal answer is no, I don’t think so. Hitler started by suspending civil rights. Our Founding Fathers wisely made it very hard to amend our constitution and, even with Trump’s three justices in place, I don’t think this Supreme Court would stand for it, though two of its member, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, very well might.

So, largely because of our laws, legal system and lawyers, I don’t think we’re likely to repeat what happened in Europe in the middle of the last century. But the very fact that it feels like an open question is astounding to me.

Don’t forget that Hitler came to power in a free election, just as Trump did in 2016 and nearly did again four years later. Don’t forget that even after he made himself a virtual dictator, Hitler still enjoyed wide support. Don’t forget that the German middle class simply looked the other way when their Jewish neighbors were abused, when their synagogues were burned to the ground, when their homes and possessions were stolen, and then when they simply disappeared.

In the communities around Mauthausen the burghers could not have been ignorant of the murders of over 200,000 people there over seven years. Over 8,000 guards circulated through the camp over those years and countless other bureaucrats handled the enormous organizational details that went into industrial scale murder. Every one of those people had family and friends. They never talked to them about what they did at their jobs or what they witnessed?

My point is that Hitler wasn’t a political aberration. He couldn’t have done what he did without the active support or the knowing complicity of millions. There was something in the German character that allowed it to happen, something that I never thought was present in the DNA of Americans.

Until now. About 75 million people voted for Trump in 2020, but that was before his “vermin” comments. To vote for him in 2024 raises moral questions that I can’t answer for the voter.

Of all the things I saw at Mauthausen the thing that I found most chilling was a small display tucked away among the exhibits. It was simply a series of panels with the resumes and life histories of the higher ranking officials at the camp. Before the war these were average people with the usual kinds of jobs. Banker, accountant, school teacher, etc. They went on to commit acts of unspeakable horror. It’s easy to think of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as the Brown Shirt thugs, but these were solid citizens. It makes you contemplate what people are capable of.

Like most Americans, I suppose, I tend to have a sunny disposition. I like to think that people are basically good and that, whoever might be in charge of the country, the fundamental decency of the American people will prevail.

But then I remember that 75 million of my fellow citizens voted for Donald Trump. I’ve resisted comparing Trump to Hitler because I thought that was over the top. But not now. After his vermin comments I believe that is absolutely a fair comparison.

Given what we know about this man now, if you’re a Trump voter (and I imagine we have a few who read this blog) how on earth can you justify voting for him again?

A version of this piece originally appeared in Isthmus.

School board needs challengers. Incumbent Madison School Board members Savion Castro and Maia Pearson have announced that they’re running for reelection in April. I have deep concerns about the direction of this Board. So, I hope candidates will step forward to challenge them with a fresh and practical vision. You need only 100 signatures to get on the ballot and nomination papers can be circulated now through January 3rd.