It’s the early 1930s in Germany. Times are tough. The populace is unhappy with the weak crazy-quilt Weimar Republic. The economy’s in shambles. People are hungry and angry. Morale is low. There must be someone to blame.
In the cabarets, beer halls and rathskellers, the late-night comedians are invigorated by the latest butt of their humor. A crazy man with a farcical mustache and the amusing name of Adolf Schicklgruber (changed to Hitler by his father) was virtually writing their jokes for them.
Their chancellor to be had little to recommend him for high office. He’d avoided military service on medical grounds before being drafted when World War I started. After the war, he painted houses for a living by day. At night, he was an agitator on the fringes of right-wing politics. From his earliest political days, he was a Germany First fanatic. He vowed to Make Germany Great Again.
Earlier, this oddball psychopath engineered a pathetic armed attempt to overthrow the elected government. This led to some jail time. As despicable as he was, he had a genius for self-promotion. Seeking power, he learned that the more outrageous he became, the more attention he got. The more unbelievable his lies, the more people believed him.
Upon manipulating, conning and bullying himself into the chancellorship, his first priority was to build the military. At the same time, he demanded that all Germans swear personal allegiance to him. He gathered despicable henchmen around himself. Notorious thieves and murderous psychopaths and sociopaths came together to form a nucleus of power that would spread out and encompass Germany and ultimately destroy it.
The comedians jokes became biting prophetic warnings. Some Germans saw the signs and worried. Some said, “It can’t happen here.”
The beer halls filled with his armed militiamen who were morphing from the KeyStone Kops into feared private militias named The Gestapo and SS. The comedians were silenced.
Adolf became a mesmerizing public speaker. He began to assemble sizable crowds, which quickly grew into massive rallies. The more outrageous and incendiary, the larger and more raucous the crowds were. He spoke to the angry hungry people who wanted a scapegoat to blame. Adolf gave them The Jews.
He dehumanized the “other,” painting them into villainous cartoon caricatures. He created an alternate reality by which these outsiders had caused the problems. He then took credit for solving his self-created problem.
He attacked and destroyed the free press. He attacked and destroyed the vulnerable bureaucracy and replaced civil servants with inexperienced hacks whose only qualification was their undying loyalty. When one veered, even slightly, he was purged and replaced by one more steadfast.
At his huge rallies, he spit out his hatred and promulgated his outrageous lies to the roar of the mesmerized crowd, in a campaign of mass brainwashing.
He was unpredictable. He appealed to fear. He fermented confusion. Empirical truth became lies; fiction became fact. The integrity of honest communication was annihilated. He took credit for things he deserved no credit for, and ascribed blame to others rather than looking into his mirror.
Throughout history such sociopathic, maniacal autocrats have arisen. Their destructive ways ultimately end in their bunker, but only after destroying so many other’s lives.
I still hear Americans say “It can’t happen here.” What are they missing?
Steve West is a social justice advocate and entrepreneur living in Delray Beach.
