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 Polish Jews captured by Germans during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Poland) - Photo from Jürgen Stroop Report to Heinrich Himmler from May 1943. One of the most famous pictures of World War II. The Purge of 2025by Jamie McKenzie(about author) |
What if Trump wins the election?He has promised retribution against journalists, politicians and various "enemies within" as well as the expulsion of 11 million undocumented immmigrants.As the Washington Post reported: In election rallies, Trump has vowed punitive action on all perceived enemies. “I am your retribution,” he told supporters at one event. In another, he promised to “root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”Imagine thousands of fists pounding on millions of doors late at night rounding up immigrants and enemies along with their family members -- American stormtroopers carrying out a purge that is chillingly similar to the purge Hitler orchestrated back in the 1930s and 1940s. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, "The Nazis targeted people as members of the following groups (listed in alphabetical order for ease of reference): * Black people in Germany;You may note some of the same people appear on Trump's list.  SS troops lead a group of Poles into the forest near Witaniow for execution. Witaniow, Poland, October–November 1939. Instytut Pamieci Narodowej Recalling the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War IICould this happen in the USA?It did happen . . . According to Encyclopedia Britannica: Between 1942 and 1945 a total of 10 camps were opened, holding approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans for varying periods of time in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas.  Residents of Japanese Ancestry Await Bus with Baggage The original caption for this photograph, taken by photographer Dorothea Lange, reads: San Francisco, California. With baggage stacked, residents of Japanese ancestry await bus at Wartime Civil Control Administration station, 2020 Van Ness Avenue, as part of the first group of 664 to be evacuated from San Francisco on April 6, 1942. Source: DocsTeach at The National Archives A large percentage of those placed in camps were citizens whose rights were trampled in a blatantly illegal manner. Given "The long history of racism against Asian Americans in the U.S." a PBS article, the camps and violation of rights were mot surprising. And Trump is playing upon the same kinds of fears and prejudice when attacking immigrants with what he considers "bad genes." The whitening of AmericaTrump's fascination with genetics, speaking often to crowds at his rallies about "good genes" and "bad genes," transmits a fundamentally racist message as he denigrates those from Africa and South America while praising the genes of white citizens in states like Minnesota.“You have good genes, you know that, right?” Trump said at a recent campaign rally. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”As the New York Times reported: With the presidential race in its closing weeks, Donald J. Trump’s language has grown increasingly strident on the issue of immigration. But as he continues to demonize undocumented migrants as violent criminals, the former president is also reviving another old habit: invoking his long-held fascination with genes and genetics.If he is successful in purging 11 million undocumented immigrants, most of whom are people of color, Trump will have successfully whitened America. Trump wants generals like Hitler's Source: The Holocaust Museum According to Trump's former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, himself a former retired four-star general, Trump once said "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had." Although Trump denies having said this, he was reportedly frustrated when the military stood up against his desire to deploy the armed forces against protesting American citizens. He wants generals who will let him do as he wishes, whether that be legal or not, sending troops to carry out his purge. To carry out his purge, he will need more than the 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel working for ICE (the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) and he may copy Hitler's strategy of creating a paramilitary group to carry out his raids -- "The Nazi Party's paramilitary organisation were the Sturm Abeilung, more commonly known as the SA. The SA were formed in 1921 and were known as 'brownshirts' due to their brown uniform. Initially most members were ex-soldiers or unemployed men." Source: The Wiener Holocaust Library  Horst Wessel at Nazi rally in Nuremberg 1929 Bundesarchiv, Bild 147-0503 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons The importance of immigrantsLet us not forget that it is immigrants who have made this a great nation and democracy. While the flood of newcomers must be handled far more skillfully, both political parties have failed to pass a comprehensive and successful plan to do this.If elected, Trump should concentrate on fixing the border problem with the help of Congress while providing undocumented immigrants a path toward citizenship. Instead of demonizing immigrants, he should find ways to integrate the conscientious into American society, reserving deportation for those who are actually guilty of crimes or unwilling to seek citizenship. Give me your tired, your poor,  George Hodan has released this “Statue Of Liberty” image under Public Domain license. |
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