How Quickly It Can Happen

03-05-2017

How Quickly It Can Happen

Timothy Snyder is the latest to remind us "how quickly a modern republic can be transformed into an authoritarian regime."

"On February 27, 1933 the German Parliament building burned, Adolf Hitler rejoiced, and the Nazi era began. Hitler, who had just been named head of a government that was legally formed after the democratic elections of the previous November, seized the opportunity to change the system. “There will be no mercy now,” he exulted. “Anyone standing in our way will be cut down.” The next day, at Hitler’s advice and urging, the German president issued a decree “for the protection of the people and the state.” It deprived all German citizens of basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly and made them subject to “preventative detention” by the police. A week later, the Nazi party, having claimed that the fire was the beginning of a major terror campaign by the Left, won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections. Nazi paramilitaries and the police then began to arrest political enemies and place them in concentration camps. Shortly thereafter, the new parliament passed an “enabling act” that allowed Hitler to rule by decree.

After 1933, the Nazi regime made use of a supposed threat of terrorism against Germans from an imaginary international Jewish conspiracy. After five years of repressing Jews, in 1938 the German state began to deport them. On October 27 of that year, the German police arrested about 17,000 Jews from Poland and deported them across the Polish border. A young man named Herschel Grynszpan, sent to Paris by his parents, received a desperate postcard from his sister after his family was forced across the Polish border.  He bought a gun, went to the German embassy, and shot a German diplomat. He called this an act of revenge for the suffering of his family and his people. Nazi propagandists presented it as evidence of an international Jewish conspiracy preparing a terror campaign against the entire German people. Josef Goebbels used it as the pretext to organize the events we remember as Kristallnacht, a massive national pogrom of Jews that left hundreds dead. The Reichstag fire shows how quickly a modern republic can be transformed into an authoritarian regime."

Form more information visit: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/02/26/reichstag-fire-manipulating-terror-to-end-democracy/

Are You Out Of Your Mind?

For Hannah Arendt, de-nationalization of citizens is one of the surest signs of totalitarian government. "One is almost tempted to measure the degree of totalitarian infection by the extent to which the concerned governments use their sovereign right of denationalization." The United States, as do all states, has powerful rights to grant and takeaway citizenship. But mass denationalizations, for Arendt, "presupposed a state structure which, if it was not yet fully totalitarian, at least would not tolerate any opposition and would rather lose its citizens than harbor people with different views." Glenn Geher tells of a neighbor in his town of New Paltz, just down the road from the Hannah Arendt Center, who was recently arrested and is behind bars. Joel Guerrero had immigrated legally and obtained a Green Card; his Green Card was revoked after he was arrested in his 20s on misdemeanor charges for having a Marijuana plant in his room. But he continued to live in the country legally, reporting to ICE every six months on probation. Married to an American citizen and expecting his first child in a few months, he now faces deportation after 10 years in the United States. Geher's account is worth reading. So too his plea that "This is still the United States of America, and I am here to tell you that if you are outraged at this insanity (and I hope you are), you have options."

"Joel works in the field of construction and is married to long-standing resident of New Paltz, Jessica Guerrero. She grew up in New Paltz. She graduated from the same high school that my daughter goes to right now. She took classes at SUNY New Paltz, where I teach. She and I have 10 common Facebook friends. This is New Paltz - this is small-town America. And this is a town full of people living the American Dream. Without knowing Jessica well, I will say this in case it is not obvious: I stand for her and her family and their right to pursue the American Dream. Jessica is now pregnant with Joel’s baby. They are excited to build a family here in New Paltz. And just hearing their story makes me excited for them. So you can imagine how up in arms people in my little town are to hear that Joel is now behind bars in a federal immigration detention facility in New Jersey. He was arrested after a routine semi-annual meeting with ICE officials last week. It was a surprise arrest. He was not given the option to have an attorney represent him. He is currently behind bars  - with the rationale being that he (a) missed one meeting with immigration officials seven years ago and (b) he had some misdemeanor arrest regarding marijuana possession when he was in his 20s. Joel Guerrero is married to a native of the USA - she is pregnant with their child. He immigrated here legally 10 years ago with his family - in an effort to pursue the American dream. And he is behind bars as I type right now. (Details on his story are presented in the New York Daily News here). I have one question for the new administration of our nation regarding this situation, and it is this: ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?!?!?"

 

Form more information visit: http://moveforwardnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-anti-american-arrest-of-joel.html

Why Should We Be Deported?

Friedrich Trump, the grandfather of the U.S. President, wrote this heartfelt plea to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria, in 1905, asking for himself and his family to not be deported. The Prince nevertheless had Trump and his family deported.

"Most Serene, Most Powerful Prince Regent! Most Gracious Regent and Lord! I was born in Kallstadt on March 14, 1869. My parents were honest, plain, pious vineyard workers. They strictly held me to everything good — to diligence and piety, to regular attendance in school and church, to absolute obedience toward the high authority. After my confirmation, in 1882, I apprenticed to become a barber. I emigrated in 1885, in my sixteenth year. In America I carried on my business with diligence, discretion, and prudence. God’s blessing was with me, and I became rich. I obtained American citizenship in 1892. In 1902 I met my current wife. Sadly, she could not tolerate the climate in New York, and I went with my dear family back to Kallstadt. The town was glad to have received a capable and productive citizen. My old mother was happy to see her son, her dear daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter around her; she knows now that I will take care of her in her old age. But we were confronted all at once, as if by a lightning strike from fair skies, with the news that the High Royal State Ministry had decided that we must leave our residence in the Kingdom of Bavaria. We were paralyzed with fright; our happy family life was tarnished. My wife has been overcome by anxiety, and my lovely child has become sick. Why should we be deported?"

Form more information visit: http://harpers.org/archive/2017/03/the-emigrants/