What American Woke Cancel Culture Has Taught Me About Nazi Germany

 Education News

Many are cautious to risk their well-being for others

"Most people mean well, fear losing the jobs and income by which they support their families, and are terrified they will lose friends and social standing. This is true equally of “Good Germans,” nice Jews, and average Americans desperately trying to survive today’s Leftist Woke “cancel culture” reign of terror. To find heroes whose words and deeds withstand that fear — well, that’s why heroes are outlier and few.

"As I grew into adolescence, it initially was hard to understand “Good Germans” of the Hitler years who did not stand up to the Nazis, but instead quietly accommodated themselves to the Holocaust. They saw what was happening and yet remained docile. Yes, there were the precious few heroes who actually imperiled their own lives by hiding Jews in their homes — in attics, basements, under floor boards. However, the very best among the rest tended simply to look away as Jews were trucked off to ghettoes in preparation for cattle-car journeys to death camps. The best of those “Good Germans” turned aside and did not lay hands on their Jewish neighbors’ pianos, chandeliers, and art work left behind, but they also did not lift a finger to help.

"Was it genetic? Had centuries of anti-Jewish eruptions throughout Europe — murderous crusades along the Rhine from the 11th to 13th centuries, “poisoning the well” defamations of the mid-14th century Black Death bubonic plague era, blood libels, desecration-of-the host slanders, expulsions and inquisitions, Cossack pogroms, and all that transpired into the Hitlerian 20th century — biologically changed German, Ukrainian, and other European spiritual DNA? As a teenage boy, I wondered. However, in later years I met a man of the American Midwest and of German descent, an attorney for whom I worked at Jones Day when I litigated complex multi-million-dollar matters, and he became one of the best friends I have had. He is a man of extraordinary character whose friendship I have cherished throughout the past quarter century.". . .  More...