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I have slowly been reading through The Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, based on his interviews with former Nazis after the Second World War. One of the most thought-provoking chapters of the book, published in 1955, was based on an interview with a former Nazi who initially refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Nazi party. The next day he decided to take the oath, so that he could keep his job and support his family. But while a Nazi, he secretly saved a large number of Jews by diverting them away from the concentration camps to safety.

Yet in his interview, the former Nazi told the book author his decision to join the Nazis was the wrong one. The author replied, “but you saved many lives and would have been unable to do that if you were unemployed as a result of refusing the oath.” The former Nazi, who had obviously put a lot of thought into his position, then explained that when he took the oath he did not know if he would later have either the courage or the opportunity to save lives.

Later the former Nazi added that he and many other well-educated Germans who stayed quiet and stuck to their daily routines were far more qualified to be leaders of Germany than the Nazi leaders who were typically less-educated. He concluded that he was one of thousands of well-educated Germans who saw the big picture of what was ultimately coming, could have refused to join the party, and by seeking leadeship roles as political opposition figures in Germany could have averted Nazism and the Holocaust entirely. He reasoned that millions of lives could have thus been saved, instead of the dozens he actually saved while a Nazi. He concluded that he made the wrong choice. It was an interesting and well-considered philosophical perspective and one that may be pertinent in the world today.

Was the former Nazi correct? The book was published in 1955 or nearly 70 years before today. Did the U.S. election victories by the MAGA Republicans, who sometimes seem poorly educated, happen because better-educated U.S. citizens stayed quiet or were less organized and driven to offer an alternative as suggested by the former Nazi in his 1955 interview? Or, did the MAGA Republicans win because ignorance and hate appealed to voters more than educated reason?

#Fascism #USPol #History #Books
#Reading