PARALLEL UNIVERSES

PARALLEL UNIVERSES

By Peter Fredson

March 12, 2006

Long ago I was sent as a First Sergeant with my small unit into Normandy, France. I spent several weeks living in fox-holes, tents and Nissen huts. Then the Allies broke through at St. Lo. Large German army units surrendered intact.

A colonel called me to his portable headquarters and said: “I understand you speak German.” “Yes, sir”. “Do you know army regulations?” “Yes, sir, I’m a chief administrative non-commissioned officer, so I know regulations.” “Do you know about the Geneva Conventions?” “Yes, Sir, I have the army pamphlet on it and have read it.”

“Well, Sergeant, I’m putting you in charge of some prisoners of war. You will set up a stockade and arrange for the care and security of the prisoners. I’ll give you some squads of infantry men from a rest area, and there will be a couple of war-tired officers to advise you. Stick to army regs and to the Geneva Conventions. You will contact supply and other services and take care of living problems. Try not to kill anyone or get killed. Any questions?”

I was given a large truck-full of barbed wire and we set up a perimeter with the German troops sitting and sleeping on the ground for several days until I could find tents. I spent considerable time talking with the prisoners, mainly Wehrmacht inductees, who generally were well disciplined, docile and cooperative. The few who could not believe they were prisoners, and still harbored thoughts of resistance, I transferred to another unit.

While processing the prisoners, I usually spoke them about their views of Hitler and his Thousand-Year Empire. Most prisoners said they were just ordinary people, who read the newspapers, listened to the radio, and went along with the administration without much opposition. They well knew the treatment accorded to any critics. They believed the newspapers, the radio, the newsreels, the speeches, their preachers, which all gave the same unified message.

Hitler was mighty convincing. He said he would restore the glory of Germany, and avenge all the wrongs that European countries had imposed on Germany. They watched him build his army, his air force, his navy and were impressed. They liked his aggressiveness, his ability to stand up for Germany.

They listened to his fiery speeches, watched the swaggering, liked the threats against smaller neighbors as their retribution. Indeed, Germany showed amazing industrial progress. They could never believe that Hitler lied constantly, or that his preemptive propensities would sink the German nation into a quagmire of despair, destruction and death for the entire nation. Up until his last days he retained his optimism that he would prevail.

When the great propagandists, Goebbels and Goering, began their campaigns they squelched all resistance by firing squads, midnight knocks at the door, torture and abuse in dank jail cells, all lack of legal counsel, secrecy paramount, neighbors spying on neighbors, reading personal mail, listening to private conversations, and every possible means of supressing any resistance to the total spread of Nazi ideology, the Aryan mythology, the marching with flying flags, the swastika and photos of Hitler everywhere.

Who could resist the enormous circus act by political scoundrels? Certainly not the “representatives” of the people. At least, not beyond a modicum of indignation. Certainly not the judiciary, beyond ordinary tasks of judging ordinary household crimes where the Constitution still applied. They went along the path of least resistance.

But Hitler was above any constitution, above any law. He was the law. He was the ultimate unitary executive, which no one would deny.

The transition to finding the Jews as scapegoats for Germany misfortunes came naturally. The final solution to the “Jewish Problem” was ostensibly not known to the average German. I did not personally speak to anyone who ever admitted knowing about it. The secret death camps were not advertised, the torture and abuse not shown in the newsreels, but only the swooping Messerschmidts, the grinding treads of the heavy tanks charging through the landscape, the roar of rockets, and the grim faces of well-disciplined troops, armed to the teeth, as they swept victoriously through one European country to another.

Those were days of great optimism, everything seem to go well, victory was constantly trumpeted. The great leader stood in stadiums amongst thousands of cheering people, making endless speeches, with flags and swastikas everywhere. DEUTCHLAND UBER ALLES. Hitler and their preachers told them that God was with them. Their politicians assured them that great days lay ahead. The military was assured of glory, promotions, victory.

Great things were happening to young and old Aryans.

Most prisoners told me that they were merely following orders. Their great leader would solve all their problems, so they went along with him. Their military was the best in the world, with the best armament, well-educated officers, a very efficient and deadly secret police, the fabulous S.S. troops, all fighting against oppressive or degenerate neighbors that were not worthy to be fully complete civilized humans. Their factories were invincible machines, superior to all others, and could churn out immense war supplies.

All the German media favored Hitler, praised him, reprinted all his speeches, his promises, and those of the Hitler charming advisors in propaganda and death. The offensive forces could defeat any other on earth. The defensive forts and walls could withstand any assault. Optimism was reflected in every word, every gesture of the great leaders.

Any criticism was very quickly taken care of by many different agencies, most of them deadly. But why protest, when everything was going so well? There was plenty of food for conformists, plenty of medals and praise for sycophants, most ordinary people could work for fair wages or on their farms without ostensible repression. The young people went to special training camps, where sex was encouraged to get more cannon fodder.

What could be wrong with that picture? What loyal German could protest?

Disloyalty was treason and led to tremendous punishment, suddenly terminated by death. This applied to all Germans, even Generals. So, loyalty was unquestionably a major priority for citizenship. Carrot and stick worked well as a modus Vivendi. German superiority to Polish peasants was obvious to them. It was civilization versus barbarism, and the choice was clear. Get rid of human trash and the world will be better for it.

Hitler, the very model of arrogant dictator, absolute in his convictions and beliefs, unquestionably right, God-Fearing, irritable, petulant, carpet-chewing in rages, working by divine intuition, micro-managed the entire nation in every detail. Every campaign, every battle, was overseen by his genius and inexhaustible energy, He did not have a stupid “flypaper” strategy. His entrance strategy was always well-informed by a very competent General staff. It is his exit strategy that went awry with Russia and the Allies.

He stayed his course until the bitter end.

I didn’t meet any prisoner that disliked him. They all remarked on his charm, eloquence, vision, leadership ability, spiritual qualities, tenacity, ambition, and great desire to recreate the German nation in the Aryan image. But those were in the early days of German defeats. Desillusion came later, in great gobs.

Yes, I have a reason to relive these bygone days.

To anyone who hears me, I see many parallels between George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler. I see many parallels with the Bush cabinet of cronies and the Hitlerian advisors like Goebbels and Goering.

The difference is that Hitler was a much more effective and competent leader, less reliant on fantasy and supernatural entities, but equally vicious in attacks on civil rights and in arrogant presumption of being above law or Constitution. Hitler was perhaps quicker in deadly reprisals, but Bush certainly has the potential for death to critics, foreign or domestic. His Hellfire missiles have sent that message clearly.

Bush is much more manipulable to several mighty influences of fundamentalist Christians, neocon corporations, and to his cronies, whereas Hitler could suddenly terminate them without second thought. Bush is a Charlie McCarthy figure, while Hitler was a more lean, mean, sinister and frightening figure

But the spying, secret jails, torture and abuse, renditions, kidnapping, spies in foreign countries, the military strategy, the tortuous suppression of civil rights, the arrogation of imperial powers, the deliberate lies prior to invasion, the preemptive attitude, the absolutist mentality, the contempt for other people, the disdain for legal procedures, the ignorance of other cultures, the swaggering and strutting, the eternal carbon-copy speeches, the sycophant representatives, the worship of wealth and power, the military-industrial complex unleashed, the corruption, the degradation of other peoples, the exploitation of patriotism, religion, flag, and fear are all eerily familiar to me.

If anyone does not see this they are blind to history, deaf to precedent, ignorant of consequences, and oblivious to what is happening to our democracy today.

We are in the grip of a tyrant right now, with the same mechanics of administration as Hitler, same type of cronies, same dynamic for empire, same military-industrial complex, same kind of cowardly war-hawks thirsting for someone else’s blood and property. The lust for power is the same, the grab for wealth identical.

The same pretensions of religion and corporations have appeared. The same sycophants, the same endless corruption, the same disregard of spending. The same disdain for the death of loyal troops is present as inconsequential in the great scheme of things.

When leaders recur to torture, abuse, secrecy, lies, misinformation, stealth, propaganda, control of media, spying, warrantless arrests, indefinite detention, disdain for international law or precedents, and strut or swagger, their way in bullying the rest of the world, then we have lost the concepts of democracy, liberty, freedom, virtue, honor, rectitude, justice, and peace.

God is with the powerful, the wealthy, and the Devil take the rest.