As we traveled through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany and visited a number of World War II European Holocaust sites, I felt more Jewish than I have in a long time. In Prague we toured the Theresienstadt concentration camp, also called Terezín, on a Friday. The next day I attended Saturday “Shabbos” services at the Altneu-Synagogue where I said a prayer for all who were lost. The tiny Altneu-Synagogue was completed in 1270 and is the oldest active synagogue in Europe.
Outside of Berlin we visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp, now the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum. Sachsenhausen and Theresienstadt were not Jewish extermination camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka. Theresienstadt was used by the Nazis as a show place to try to convince the world that conditions for Jews were not that bad and as a transfer station for people marked for death. Sachsenhausen was one of the earliest concentration camps. It was built in 1936 and is located about 20 miles north of Berlin. Sachsenhausen was a prison for people labeled “enemies of the state” and was used as a forced labor camp and training site for SS officers who would administer other camps. We entered the camp through a wrought-iron gate with the notice “Arbeit Macht Frei” – work makes you free. There were executions at the camp, including 13,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and illegal and inhumane medical experiments on inmates. Approximately 200,000 people were imprisoned at Sachsenhausen during the Nazi regime and 30,000 inmates died, most from exhaustion, disease, and malnutrition. As one guard told a prisoner at Sachsenhausen while point towards the crematorium, “There is a way to freedom, but only through this chimney.”
One of the most striking sites we visited in Berlin was the "Topography of Terror" exhibit on the site of the now destroyed headquarters of the SS Reich Main Security Office and the Gestapo. The foundations and basements of the buildings are now exposed. Adding to the sense of ominousness is that they are inches away from remnants of the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Berlin during the Cold War and the occupation of East Germany by the Soviet Union.
Germany encourages visitors to the "Topography of Terror" so both the outdoor and indoor exhibits are free. Although it was the beginning of July we saw high school age students on field trips. At a section focusing on 1933 and 1934, a teacher from the Netherlands was explaining to his class how fragile democracy and rule by law can be and how quickly Germany was plunged into a dictatorship that victimized political opposition, labor union leaders, people with disabilities, and ethnic minorities, especially Jews and “Gypsies” (Roma and Sinti). I spoke with an exhibit guide who explained that many of the visitors during the year are German students on class field trips.
The "Topography of Terror" exhibit traced Nazi rule and horrors from Hitler’s ascendency to power in 1933 when he was invited to form a parliamentary government through the perversion of law and World War II to the defeat of Germany in 1945. One of the things that I found most disturbing was the distortion of language in anti-Semitic and politically repressive “laws” and Nazi propaganda. It reminded me of the novel 1984 by George Orwell where the slogan “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” is inscribed on the “Ministry of Truth.” Unfortunately, it also reminds me of outrageous and nasty statements and tweets by Donald Trump.
In Nazi Germany, attacks on German Jews were justified as “Abwehraktion” (defensive actions).
Dissidents who questioned the regime were branded as “asoziale” (anti-social) or “staatsfeinde” (enemies of the state), which were grounds for imprisonment in a concentration camp. “Vorbeugungshaft” (protective custody) was not used to protect individuals, but to protect the government from people who criticized the Nazi state apparatus, policies, or ideology.
To silence those who believed in human rights, facts, and truth, the Nazis established the Kampfausschusse wider den undeutschen Geist or Committees Against the UnGerman Spirit at German Universities and launched “Die Zerschlagung der Gewerkschaften,” a campaign against trade unions. To secure his power, Hitler demanded that subordinates pledge personal loyalty to him.
Ethnic minorities and protesters were dismissed as “Gemeinschaftsfeinde” (alien to the community), “Volksschädlinge” (pest to the nation), and “Bandenverdächtige” (suspected gang members) in much the same way as Donald Trump has referred to undocumented immigrants and refugees from Mexico and Central America.
In an echo of the U.S. religious rights assault on gay rights and reproduction freedom for women, Nazi Germany established the Reichszentralezur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und der Abtreibung, the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion. Nazi propaganda promoted the slogan “wer nicht arbeitet, soll auch nicht essen” (those who do not work shall not eat) and a campaign to rid the nation of “Unnütze essen” (useless eaters), which sounds a lot like the Trump administration’s threats to food stamps and health care for the poor.
The "Topography of Terror" exhibit also included a section on resistance to the Nazi regime. “Es lebe die Freiheit” (Long Live Freedom), were the last words of anti-Nazi German freedom fighter Hans Scholl. Scholl, a medical student, was 24-years old when he was executed in 1943 for distributing leaflets protesting against the Nazis. His sister, Sophie Scholl, age 21, another founding member of the resistance group Weisse Rose (White Rose) was also executed.
As teachers engage students to become active citizens in a democratic society in the United States, and as American citizens confront the petty authoritarian Trumps of the world, it is important to remember how fragile democracy and rule by law can be and to celebrate people like the Scholls and other members of the White Rose who gave their lives to defend a world where “Es lebe die Freiheit.”