Not Ignoring Real Horror

When we were in Germany in September, we visited the Dachau concentration camp. Unlike Auschwitz, which was an extermination camp, Dachau was the "model" labor camp. Make no mistake: the Nazis had no qualms about exterminating these prisoners, including to "set the tone" in the camp, but the primary goal was to work them to death while providing inadequate shelter and food, and conducting medical experiments on them. 

I bought That Was Dachau from the store at the memorial site/museum, started reading it on the plane ride home, took it to DC, San Fran, and Atlanta, and finished it in Nashville. It was written by a man who was imprisoned there and became a historian later in life. It was a very well-researched book and he complemented the documented record with some personal observations ("I saw that," or "Here's an example of what some of us did"). 

It was well worth reading, even if it was dark. An abbreviated version of what I've been thinking about:

- There are parallels between Hitler's rise to power and today's GOP gambling on Trump/Trump allies. Republicans: hold your ire. I am not alleging that Trump himself wants to exterminate entire groups of people (I think he's not that committed to anything other than himself.) But the political tradeoffs we're seeing for the pursuit of raw power is frightening.

- Tons and tons of people, unfathomable numbers, really, were cruelly murdered - both quickly and slowly - way more than we'll ever know. 

- A lot of people had horrible, cruel, sadistic motives. It was not just a few bad actors.

- The Nazis weren't just interested in killing people who were Jewish, Roma, gay, Polish, Russian, Czech, political adversaries, etc., but wanted to set up a system of sustained enslavement to benefit German society in perpetuity. 

There's a lot more than that. And, it is a very accessible account, if you can avoid dwelling for too long on the actual people being mistreated or killed. I highly recommend reading it. I think our future demands that we understand events like these.