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“The scariest thing is not the evil, but more the people who sit by and let it happen.” Albert Einstein
I am breaking down a Holocaust guide for work and it has my social studies brain spinning in a hundred directions. There are so many relevant lessons for 2020 America.
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I am breaking down a Holocaust guide for work and it has my social studies brain spinning in a hundred directions. There are so many relevant lessons for 2020 America.
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I’m not making a sensationalist claim that there are going to be camps in America, or we are headed for genocide.
I am pointing out that the voices from these stories are crying out to be heard, and for us to remember HOW the Holocaust happened. It is a warning.
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I am pointing out that the voices from these stories are crying out to be heard, and for us to remember HOW the Holocaust happened. It is a warning.
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https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED365588.pdf
“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant.” Bert Gosschalk on life in a Dutch ghetto under Nazi rule.
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“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant.” Bert Gosschalk on life in a Dutch ghetto under Nazi rule.
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In one of the most powerful moments, Peter Becker, who grew up in Nazi Germany and was indoctrinated to the point where he considered himself “150% Nazi”, delivers a warning.
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How do we prevent creeping fascism?
According to Peter Becker
1) a strong press
2) eternal vigilance
3) openness and popular participation
4) political activism
5) contributing to society
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According to Peter Becker
1) a strong press
2) eternal vigilance
3) openness and popular participation
4) political activism
5) contributing to society
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Take some time and read the documents. Read about Otto Ohlendorf, owner of a Ph.D. and responsible for 90,000 deaths as the leader of a death squad.
Hear him explain how he obeyed orders he knew were morally wrong. Consider how he felt it was not his place to question.
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Hear him explain how he obeyed orders he knew were morally wrong. Consider how he felt it was not his place to question.
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Consider the following quotes from Rudolph Hess at the Nuremberg Trials:
“It was something already taken for granted that the Jews were to blame for everything. We just never heard anything else.”
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“It was something already taken for granted that the Jews were to blame for everything. We just never heard anything else.”
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“We just never heard anything else.”
Consider how a Nazi education, where “our knowledge of what had gone on in the past was very limited” and “we were carefully kept from having a broad picture of history” would affect having “never heard anything else.”
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Consider how a Nazi education, where “our knowledge of what had gone on in the past was very limited” and “we were carefully kept from having a broad picture of history” would affect having “never heard anything else.”
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Dwell on the idea that a lack of education, shielding people from facts, blind obedience to authority, unquestioningly following orders led to this:
“We just never heard anything else” as a defense for murder.
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“We just never heard anything else” as a defense for murder.
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Let it soak in that even after seeing a traveling Holocaust exhibit with lampshades made from human skin, and understanding that the Holocaust was real, Peter Becker STILL defended Hitler and Germany as having been wronged.
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In the end, Becker does accept the realities of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.
The result?
A quest for understanding HOW this could happen, and how people ALLOWED it to happen.
“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant”
No we can’t. No it isn’t.
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The result?
A quest for understanding HOW this could happen, and how people ALLOWED it to happen.
“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant”
No we can’t. No it isn’t.
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We were at best at prejudice PRIOR to Trump, in terms of the way the rich can manipulate the legal system.
Where are we now?
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Where are we now?
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It would appear that these lessons will not be happening this school year, so I am adding on here.
Things to consider.
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Things to consider.
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“The inability to comprehend evil on such a scale gives evil an advantage. It allows evil to slip away from memory and be forgotten. It must not be forgotten, or it will come back again.”
Miriam Chalkin
Author of A Nightmare in History
#CreepingFascism
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Miriam Chalkin
Author of A Nightmare in History
#CreepingFascism
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The Holocaust and Nazi rule is not something to use lightly, and I have resisted directly drawing this comparison, but here we are.
This being said, it is time to examine Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal’s 6 conditions for the Holocaust.
https://twitter.com/HalaGorani/status/1258078376440586241
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This being said, it is time to examine Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal’s 6 conditions for the Holocaust.
https://twitter.com/HalaGorani/status/1258078376440586241
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Simon Wisenthal’s first Condition for the Holocaust.
1)The existence of overpowering hatred by the people of the nation. Is it available in America is divided and filled with hate? Immigrants, Chinese, Liberals, take your pick.
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1)The existence of overpowering hatred by the people of the nation. Is it available in America is divided and filled with hate? Immigrants, Chinese, Liberals, take your pick.
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2. Charismatic leader able to identify the feelings of anger and alienation that existed within the nation and able to convert these feelings into hatred of a target group.
Trump won the election by tapping into existing feelings and expanded them to make them more hateful.
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Trump won the election by tapping into existing feelings and expanded them to make them more hateful.
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3. Government bureaucracy that could be taken over and used to organize a policy of repression and extermination.
I am really to see where the Supreme Court will stand on Trump’s taxes. A case which Trump has repeatedly lost in the lower courts.
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I am really to see where the Supreme Court will stand on Trump’s taxes. A case which Trump has repeatedly lost in the lower courts.
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4. A highly developed state of technology that makes possible methods of mass extermination.
Does #COVID19 count?
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Does #COVID19 count?
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5. War or economic hard times.
Economic hard times are here.
https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1259225758209277952
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Economic hard times are here.
https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1259225758209277952
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6. A target group against whom the hatred could be directed.
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Connecting #thread on #CreepingFascism in the wake of #PortlandProtests.
#Portland https://twitter.com/WeirwoodRaven/status/1284161095872249856
#Portland https://twitter.com/WeirwoodRaven/status/1284161095872249856
Adolf Hitler denied that Germany had ever lost World War I. Furthermore, without evidence he blamed Jews for the outcome of the war and vowed to take revenge.
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Donald Trump is denying that He lost the 2020 election. Furthermore, without evidence he is blaming democrats and the left and vowing to take revenge.
#CreepingFascism
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#CreepingFascism
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Today, Trump us said he will join Rudy Giuliani at an event that can only be described as seditious.
Of all the places in America they chose Gettysburg, a symbol of American bloodletting and the danger of division, to host an anti democratic rally.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/politics/trump-pennsylvania-hearing-giuliani/index.html
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Of all the places in America they chose Gettysburg, a symbol of American bloodletting and the danger of division, to host an anti democratic rally.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/politics/trump-pennsylvania-hearing-giuliani/index.html
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Rudy describes some of the changes that took place after Kristallnacht.
It is notable that Trump is attempting to launch an American social studies curriculum that mirrors the Nazi model.
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It is notable that Trump is attempting to launch an American social studies curriculum that mirrors the Nazi model.
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Will Trump be able to create and launch an American centric social studies curriculum in his final days in office? It is unlikely but not impossible.
Will states have to teach it? No, but some, maybe many, will CHOOSE to.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/914127266/trump-announces-patriotic-education-commission-a-largely-political-move
#CreepingFascism
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Will states have to teach it? No, but some, maybe many, will CHOOSE to.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/914127266/trump-announces-patriotic-education-commission-a-largely-political-move
#CreepingFascism
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The Nuremberg Laws were rubber stamped by a complicit government during an unexpected session at the Reichstag.
It was announced to cheers.
Rubber stamps are dangerous. Especially rubber stamps for malignant narcissistic sociopaths.
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It was announced to cheers.
Rubber stamps are dangerous. Especially rubber stamps for malignant narcissistic sociopaths.
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