In the age of Trump, grim warnings from Holocaust survivors - The Washington Post
In the age of Trump, grim warnings from Holocaust survivors
By Dana Milbank Opinion writer January 27
Auschwitz survivor Irene Weiss... For the first time,..is worried about her adopted homeland.
“I am exceptionally concerned about demagogues,”....They touch me in a place that I remember. I know their influence and, unfortunately, I know how receptive audiences are to demagogues and what it leads to.”
She knows better than just about any person alive. The Czech-born Jew lost her parents and most of her siblings in Hitler’s death camps. Now, when she hears about plans to register Muslims and to ban Muslims from entering the United States, “I’m worried about the tone of this country,” she said.
... “It has echoes, and maybe more so to me than to native-born Americans,” she said after lighting a candle for Hitler’s victims. “I’m scared. I don’t like the trend...."
In the age of Trump, grim warnings from Holocaust survivors - The Washington Post
People who want to exclude the members of some group or category of "others" from their lives, their neighborhoods, their organizations, or their country often insist that they are not haters or bigots or racists or whatever. "I don't hate anybody, I'm just being practical (or standing up for principle or whatever)" is the common justification for hateful speech or actions. I wonder if Donald Trump gets the point of the debate in the UK parliament over whether he (Trump) should be denied entry into their country.
Most of my bigoted friends have either stopped being bigots or have stopped being my friends but i do have relatives who are "being practical." I have not excluded them from my life yet, but hey, i have to be practical also. I don't want to see a holocaust in the USA (at least not one that burns people) so i had better not encourage them by any suggestion of approval.
But then i realize that that makes me a hater also. Do not repay evil with evil, i have heard, but repay evil with good. And i believe that. So i will continue to talk to my relatives and once they know how i feel about political and social and economic and religious and sexual stuff, i will just "keep mum" when these topics come up, and just try to treat all human beings with compassion, mercy, love, respect, and acceptance. That might not be the greatest strategy for survival, but at least it might save my soul.
By Dana Milbank Opinion writer January 27
Auschwitz survivor Irene Weiss... For the first time,..is worried about her adopted homeland.
“I am exceptionally concerned about demagogues,”....They touch me in a place that I remember. I know their influence and, unfortunately, I know how receptive audiences are to demagogues and what it leads to.”
She knows better than just about any person alive. The Czech-born Jew lost her parents and most of her siblings in Hitler’s death camps. Now, when she hears about plans to register Muslims and to ban Muslims from entering the United States, “I’m worried about the tone of this country,” she said.
... “It has echoes, and maybe more so to me than to native-born Americans,” she said after lighting a candle for Hitler’s victims. “I’m scared. I don’t like the trend...."
In the age of Trump, grim warnings from Holocaust survivors - The Washington Post
People who want to exclude the members of some group or category of "others" from their lives, their neighborhoods, their organizations, or their country often insist that they are not haters or bigots or racists or whatever. "I don't hate anybody, I'm just being practical (or standing up for principle or whatever)" is the common justification for hateful speech or actions. I wonder if Donald Trump gets the point of the debate in the UK parliament over whether he (Trump) should be denied entry into their country.
Most of my bigoted friends have either stopped being bigots or have stopped being my friends but i do have relatives who are "being practical." I have not excluded them from my life yet, but hey, i have to be practical also. I don't want to see a holocaust in the USA (at least not one that burns people) so i had better not encourage them by any suggestion of approval.
But then i realize that that makes me a hater also. Do not repay evil with evil, i have heard, but repay evil with good. And i believe that. So i will continue to talk to my relatives and once they know how i feel about political and social and economic and religious and sexual stuff, i will just "keep mum" when these topics come up, and just try to treat all human beings with compassion, mercy, love, respect, and acceptance. That might not be the greatest strategy for survival, but at least it might save my soul.