Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana I have been thinking about Treblinka, Auschwitz, Majdanak, Theresienstadt, the Warsaw, Lublin, Krakow ghettos, Oskar Schindler’s factory, and all of the inhumanity I bore witness to across Poland, where the scars of Nazi occupation and evil remain etched for eternity. The magnitude of the violence inflicted on Poland and the Polish people by Nazi Germany beggars the imagination, and truly overwhelms the senses. Yet, it is real, and it is recent. The events occurred within the span of living memory. There are hundreds of thousands of living survivors from places that defy description, but whose existence requires constant reminding because they linger at the edge of an abyss that can be found again. What does “Never Again” mean if there is collective amnesia about what happened?
Fifty years ago I read “The Hiding Place” by a Dutch woman named Corrie Ten Boom. She, her sister Betsie, along with their father, were arrested by the Nazis occupying Holland and sent to a German concentration camp. Their crime was attempting to shelter their Jewish neighbors from discovery by the SS.
It was a searing account of the systematized cruelty of the Nazis. One comment I vividly recall was Ten Boom’s account of herself and fellow prisoners being herded through a public train station in Germany. The German civilians in the station, she said, avoided meeting their gaze while stealing furtive glances at them. Ten Boom said that they knew what was happening but didn’t want to acknowledge that they knew.
We absolutely know what Trump is promising. There will be systematized cruelty. There will be camps. There will be political prisoners. At some point, I believe there will be Navalnys. All we have to do is look at Russia because Putin is his idol, his role model.
Never say, “It can’t happen here.” It can. It is. “The home of the free and the brave”? We are becoming the cowed and the cowardly. And millions are eagerly embracing it.
Donald Trump was the one who fomented the fire burning all over the world now. He has encouraged Vladimir Putin, the genocidal maniac, who was already on the soil of his neighbors when Trump took office in 2016. Feeling empowered after Trump, Putin, Iran and North Korea acted as if they were unstoppable by the time Biden came into the office. Not only COVID was mismanaged, Biden also had to deal with the insurgent of these bloodthirsty authoritarians that Trump was normalizing. And now they are trying to promote the idea that it is Biden not Trump who invites instability. We need to stay on top of the narrative that it is Donal Trump who poses dangers to the world because of his worship of dictators. Trump’s refusal to support Ukraine is a very damaging and dangerous move that shows he, as a former president, is the supporter of Valadimir Putin and Iran that attack Ukraine and Israel.
After reading about and watching clips from the joint news conference yesterday, I was furious and disgusted. I don’t remember anything like this happening before. The horror of Trump continues to grow and seems to be getting worse. Johnson is a liar. He may say he follows the Bible, that it guides his life, but what he says and his actions are nothing close to the teachings of Jesus. Maybe he has a different Bible than the one I was taught from.
That people will believe these lies and vote for this monster boggles the mind, but they will. Their votes are really no different than the villages that were close to the Nazi death camps. Thus my disgust grows.
I want to admit that I was also disgusted that immediately following the Trump show, someone, Biden, was not on tv, social media, everywhere, denouncing it. Perhaps my expectations are too high. (If I missed it, let me know)
And what is the deal with Grenell, Trump’s “envoy” visiting and meeting with foreign nations/leaders. Isn’t there a law against this?
Sorry if this was a bit off topic, but I am mad, disgusted and very worried, needing to vent.
Excellent call. One point that also needs to be covered is how after reporting Trump's calls for violence CNN and others try to neutralize it by saying something like "we don't know if he will really do that."
So what? It’s a given that we can’t have future knowledge. So it isn’t news that Wolf Blitzer doesn’t know if or when Trump will follow through on his threats.
The news is that TFG is making serious threats that are met with silence by the billionaires financing GOP campaigns and applauded by millions of gun owners.
The right question is whether — given 20th century history — you can afford to ignore his threats to your family, neighbors, community, and our civic way of life? (Me: I can't.)
Another brilliant piece Steve.Thanks to your eloquent words, I can almost feel the agony of those poor souls as they descended the steps into the Gas chambers. It is heartbreaking beyond belief and frightening almost beyond my comprehension.
Yet I know millions live in denial and delusion that something like this could ever happen on American soil. When we know it could. And would if we don't stop him.
I do have hope though. After the ghastly decision in Arizona this week and with the trial starting Monday, I think the tide may be turning. I know we can't let up for a second and still have massive work to do before November, but there is hope that justice and accountability may at last be coming for DJT. So don't give up hope dear friends!! Keep the faith!! ❤️🇺🇸💙
Every word is true. However, even if we defeat Trump this November, we must know that Project 2025 has no expiration date. The Republican party has been gearing up for this moment since 1968 and the planners/oligarchs will not give up so easily. It is easy to select all “2025“ and change to “2029”. A true democracy requires two or more political parties that actually believe. We only have one today.
I am troubled by the ongoing intrusion of religion into our politics.
Politics, unlike religious belief, is based on the acceptance of observable reality and while beliefs must be tolerated as an aspect of our freedom, they are not observable and as such must not be considered in our governance.
The demands of those who hold religious belief above observable reality lie at the heart of our social problems and may very well cause the dissolution of our nation.
This is the fundamental reason behind the concept of separating church and state. We accept this intrusion at our own and our children's peril.
It is happening here. We have another violent insurrection coming up and if god forbid Trump wins, violence against the non-white immigrant community. Biden has his hands full.
Good Saturday morning, Steve! This is powerful. Riveting. The following is the message I sent this morning to friends and colleagues;
This latest column from Steve Schmidt is superbly written, and riveting. It is “heavy”, so be forewarned. We are living in and through a very turbulent period in our nation’s history. The enemies domestic are seated in some of the highest posts in society. They are set out to destruct and destroy. Sadly, a large portion of this domestic tyranny is fomented by Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Johnson is a Christian nationalist/fascist who is taking his marching orders from Donald Trump. Our country may well be facing its very own Armageddon.
There is a darkness that has been draped across our land, a pall comprised of cleverly crafted falsehoods. Trump rallies are designed to be sinister and evil. One notes, even from the seldom-watched video clips, how Trump offers NOTHING of substance. His discourse is laced with whining what-about-meisms. His boo-hoo screed is infantile. The crisis is less about Trump and more about those unfortunate souls who have been seduced by his cunning evil.
Hello _ This is important and pretty concise. Your voice affirms our sanity, the rational reality of what we see with our own eyes! I only hope if other people see your article it will resonate with their innate humanity; it is a hope. Am I able to post this on my Facebook? Or, can I post on our local Democratic club website? I rarely post political items on my personal Facebook, but I do do it selectively. Thank you for your WARNING.
Not to denigrate anything Steve has written, but I must once again recommend "The Holocaust: an Unfinished History" by Dan Stone. He describes aspects of the Holocaust far worse than industrial murder. Things like the "Mobile Holocaust" at the end of the war where inmates were force-marched into Germany from both east and west as the allied armies advanced. Most fell by the wayside and were shot, their bodies left to be buried by the locals who went on to claim, "We couldn't know."
Deep in the limbic brains of some of us "Naked Apes" is this idea. I feel bad about: (my life! the world! my neighbors! the Libs!!) and the only way for me to feel better is by hurting somebody. TFG tells me I can! This is about Civilization and we're animals.
Democracy will die at Ukrainian battlefield if we don’t adapt and win it precisely there. According to the Telegraph https://youtu.be/NOigviXwKCU?si=NbIkGkQE1X406prg Putin is outfitting old Soviet dumb bombs with guided plane launched missiles and destroying entire Ukraine and the frontline. Democracy is running out of time. We cannot wait to take out Kerch Bridge for later. We must help Zelensky take down Kerch bridge to cut off Russian war machine now. We must also be all in to guarantee Israel’s survival against Iran.
Most of your analysis regarding your trip to Poland is trenchant and well expressed. However, your justified revulsion ignores the complicity of a fair portion of the Polish people in the subjugation and annihilation of Polish Jews. Poland has long been anti-Semitic to its core. Polish pogroms, Poles benefitting from the confiscation of Jewish property and the treatment of Jews after the War are clear and undeniable. Read Jan Gross on these subjects. Don’t buy the Revanchist “history” of the atrocities that exonerate the Poles and portray them as victims. Many of them were both oppressors and beneficiaries of the Nazi depredations.
Steve, this is one of the most powerful pieces I have read from you, which is saying a lot. Why can people not see what is happening?
Fifty years ago I read “The Hiding Place” by a Dutch woman named Corrie Ten Boom. She, her sister Betsie, along with their father, were arrested by the Nazis occupying Holland and sent to a German concentration camp. Their crime was attempting to shelter their Jewish neighbors from discovery by the SS.
It was a searing account of the systematized cruelty of the Nazis. One comment I vividly recall was Ten Boom’s account of herself and fellow prisoners being herded through a public train station in Germany. The German civilians in the station, she said, avoided meeting their gaze while stealing furtive glances at them. Ten Boom said that they knew what was happening but didn’t want to acknowledge that they knew.
We absolutely know what Trump is promising. There will be systematized cruelty. There will be camps. There will be political prisoners. At some point, I believe there will be Navalnys. All we have to do is look at Russia because Putin is his idol, his role model.
Never say, “It can’t happen here.” It can. It is. “The home of the free and the brave”? We are becoming the cowed and the cowardly. And millions are eagerly embracing it.
In my state of North Carolina, voters will have a choice:
Elect a Holocaust Denier the Governor and elect a hate-filled Conspiracy Advocate the Administrator of the State Public School System.
This should be easy, you would think. But tragically it is not.
Donald Trump was the one who fomented the fire burning all over the world now. He has encouraged Vladimir Putin, the genocidal maniac, who was already on the soil of his neighbors when Trump took office in 2016. Feeling empowered after Trump, Putin, Iran and North Korea acted as if they were unstoppable by the time Biden came into the office. Not only COVID was mismanaged, Biden also had to deal with the insurgent of these bloodthirsty authoritarians that Trump was normalizing. And now they are trying to promote the idea that it is Biden not Trump who invites instability. We need to stay on top of the narrative that it is Donal Trump who poses dangers to the world because of his worship of dictators. Trump’s refusal to support Ukraine is a very damaging and dangerous move that shows he, as a former president, is the supporter of Valadimir Putin and Iran that attack Ukraine and Israel.
After reading about and watching clips from the joint news conference yesterday, I was furious and disgusted. I don’t remember anything like this happening before. The horror of Trump continues to grow and seems to be getting worse. Johnson is a liar. He may say he follows the Bible, that it guides his life, but what he says and his actions are nothing close to the teachings of Jesus. Maybe he has a different Bible than the one I was taught from.
That people will believe these lies and vote for this monster boggles the mind, but they will. Their votes are really no different than the villages that were close to the Nazi death camps. Thus my disgust grows.
I want to admit that I was also disgusted that immediately following the Trump show, someone, Biden, was not on tv, social media, everywhere, denouncing it. Perhaps my expectations are too high. (If I missed it, let me know)
And what is the deal with Grenell, Trump’s “envoy” visiting and meeting with foreign nations/leaders. Isn’t there a law against this?
Sorry if this was a bit off topic, but I am mad, disgusted and very worried, needing to vent.
Excellent call. One point that also needs to be covered is how after reporting Trump's calls for violence CNN and others try to neutralize it by saying something like "we don't know if he will really do that."
So what? It’s a given that we can’t have future knowledge. So it isn’t news that Wolf Blitzer doesn’t know if or when Trump will follow through on his threats.
The news is that TFG is making serious threats that are met with silence by the billionaires financing GOP campaigns and applauded by millions of gun owners.
The right question is whether — given 20th century history — you can afford to ignore his threats to your family, neighbors, community, and our civic way of life? (Me: I can't.)
Another brilliant piece Steve.Thanks to your eloquent words, I can almost feel the agony of those poor souls as they descended the steps into the Gas chambers. It is heartbreaking beyond belief and frightening almost beyond my comprehension.
Yet I know millions live in denial and delusion that something like this could ever happen on American soil. When we know it could. And would if we don't stop him.
I do have hope though. After the ghastly decision in Arizona this week and with the trial starting Monday, I think the tide may be turning. I know we can't let up for a second and still have massive work to do before November, but there is hope that justice and accountability may at last be coming for DJT. So don't give up hope dear friends!! Keep the faith!! ❤️🇺🇸💙
Every word is true. However, even if we defeat Trump this November, we must know that Project 2025 has no expiration date. The Republican party has been gearing up for this moment since 1968 and the planners/oligarchs will not give up so easily. It is easy to select all “2025“ and change to “2029”. A true democracy requires two or more political parties that actually believe. We only have one today.
I am troubled by the ongoing intrusion of religion into our politics.
Politics, unlike religious belief, is based on the acceptance of observable reality and while beliefs must be tolerated as an aspect of our freedom, they are not observable and as such must not be considered in our governance.
The demands of those who hold religious belief above observable reality lie at the heart of our social problems and may very well cause the dissolution of our nation.
This is the fundamental reason behind the concept of separating church and state. We accept this intrusion at our own and our children's peril.
You’re exactly correct! We sometimes seem to not learn from the past, ours or each other’s!
It is happening here. We have another violent insurrection coming up and if god forbid Trump wins, violence against the non-white immigrant community. Biden has his hands full.
Good Saturday morning, Steve! This is powerful. Riveting. The following is the message I sent this morning to friends and colleagues;
This latest column from Steve Schmidt is superbly written, and riveting. It is “heavy”, so be forewarned. We are living in and through a very turbulent period in our nation’s history. The enemies domestic are seated in some of the highest posts in society. They are set out to destruct and destroy. Sadly, a large portion of this domestic tyranny is fomented by Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Johnson is a Christian nationalist/fascist who is taking his marching orders from Donald Trump. Our country may well be facing its very own Armageddon.
There is a darkness that has been draped across our land, a pall comprised of cleverly crafted falsehoods. Trump rallies are designed to be sinister and evil. One notes, even from the seldom-watched video clips, how Trump offers NOTHING of substance. His discourse is laced with whining what-about-meisms. His boo-hoo screed is infantile. The crisis is less about Trump and more about those unfortunate souls who have been seduced by his cunning evil.
Hello _ This is important and pretty concise. Your voice affirms our sanity, the rational reality of what we see with our own eyes! I only hope if other people see your article it will resonate with their innate humanity; it is a hope. Am I able to post this on my Facebook? Or, can I post on our local Democratic club website? I rarely post political items on my personal Facebook, but I do do it selectively. Thank you for your WARNING.
Not to denigrate anything Steve has written, but I must once again recommend "The Holocaust: an Unfinished History" by Dan Stone. He describes aspects of the Holocaust far worse than industrial murder. Things like the "Mobile Holocaust" at the end of the war where inmates were force-marched into Germany from both east and west as the allied armies advanced. Most fell by the wayside and were shot, their bodies left to be buried by the locals who went on to claim, "We couldn't know."
Deep in the limbic brains of some of us "Naked Apes" is this idea. I feel bad about: (my life! the world! my neighbors! the Libs!!) and the only way for me to feel better is by hurting somebody. TFG tells me I can! This is about Civilization and we're animals.
Democracy will die at Ukrainian battlefield if we don’t adapt and win it precisely there. According to the Telegraph https://youtu.be/NOigviXwKCU?si=NbIkGkQE1X406prg Putin is outfitting old Soviet dumb bombs with guided plane launched missiles and destroying entire Ukraine and the frontline. Democracy is running out of time. We cannot wait to take out Kerch Bridge for later. We must help Zelensky take down Kerch bridge to cut off Russian war machine now. We must also be all in to guarantee Israel’s survival against Iran.
Most of your analysis regarding your trip to Poland is trenchant and well expressed. However, your justified revulsion ignores the complicity of a fair portion of the Polish people in the subjugation and annihilation of Polish Jews. Poland has long been anti-Semitic to its core. Polish pogroms, Poles benefitting from the confiscation of Jewish property and the treatment of Jews after the War are clear and undeniable. Read Jan Gross on these subjects. Don’t buy the Revanchist “history” of the atrocities that exonerate the Poles and portray them as victims. Many of them were both oppressors and beneficiaries of the Nazi depredations.