Fear and Nationalism

I spent four hours on Tuesday in Berlin at a museum called Topography of Terror. It shook me to my soul. It is a month by month depiction of the German descent into fascism. It sits next to a remaining section of the Berlin Wall and just behind what was the SS Headquarters. Hitler’s rise was not particularly sudden, but it was driven by a disgust of the traditional conservative and liberal parties in the wake of the crash of 1929. In that vacuum there were only two voices: the Socialists and the Nazis. The business class, fearing socialism, threw their lot in with the Nazis.

But Hitler’s real skill was to find a scapegoat for the declining fortunes of the German middle and lower classes — the Jews. The Jews were an alien race, changing the very nature of German society and they had to be eliminated. Then the “Volk” could be secure that they had reclaimed their country. Hitler’s other pitch was that other countries were taking advantage of Germany and that the politicians, with the aid of the Jews had “sold out the country”, making bad deals at the end of World War I. He, Hitler would make make Germany victorious again.

Sound familiar. Now I don’t want to oversell the fascist tendencies of Trumpism, but it’s pretty clear he has found his scapegoat — Illegal aliens — and his rallying cry — “We will be victorious again.” Near the end of the exhibit I came upon this quote.

That is the really scary part. Once you start down the road of thinking a strong man can fix the troubles of your nation, it becomes a slippery slope. The general belief that politics is not working in America could eventually lead to the conclusion of “who needs democracy.” I know it seems far-fetched, but a visit to the Topography of Terror shows you how rational people can be moved by fear and insecurity.