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SuZieCoyote's avatar

Thank you Thom, for a very informative and thorough discussion of the similarities between Hitler and Trump. It isn't just one man, though. It's a base of wannabe Hitlers and that is the real problem. I personally think his followers over sixty-five are in early (or later) stage dementia. They never got to have the power they thought they should have in their lives, so they bask in Trump's reflected image. Also, in my experience, most of the hard-core MAGA are drunks. Again, my experience; others may have different views. All of it is a reactionary movement against the equality gains for women, gays and POC of the '60s that was accompanied by the rise of the fundamentalist evangelicals who never accepted equality. Authoritarianism and religious extremism always go hand in hand. And somehow hatred of Jews also seems to be comorbid with this authoritarian disease. Something I just don't get is why they hate Jews so much. They've contributed a lot to the world.

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Karen Livolsi's avatar

I will tell the story of my first husband’s parents. We were married in 1978. I was 21 he was 25.

His parents, Zbignew and Sofia emigrated to the United States from Poland after WWII. They both came from well to do Polish families from Krakow. They were educated, one as an engineer and one an attorney. When the war broke out, Z became an officer in the Polish army. Sofia was married and an attorney at her father’s law firm. Sofia’s husband was a fighter pilot. When the Germans invaded Poland, they went to Sofia’s parents home where the family lived. They shot her father and brother in the street and forced Sofia and her 3 sisters into German work camps where they built roads for the German Army for 7 years. Through brutal winters with thin clothing and shoes, they were marched to the work sites, build roads and marched back in the darkness to little warmth or food. Sofia’s husband had been shot down, she was never able to find much information on him, only that he’d been killed. When the Americans liberated the work camps, Sofia was near death and was transported to an English hospital being the only member of her family to make out of Poland.

Zibignew spent several years as an intelligence officer before being captured and placed in a POW camp. He was treated precious little better than Sofia being an officer. He did continue working on getting information to counteract the Germans at the daily risk of being found out and executed. When the POW camps were liberated, he also ended up in a English Hospital.

They both booked passage on the same ship headed to America as they had friends sponsorship already American citizens from Krakow. They met on the voyage and found work in New York City where they married. They were headed to Chicago where their friends were waiting for them. Zbignew became senior design engineer for US Steel and Sofia an interpreter at the University of Chicago. They had 2 sons later in life than what was social norm at the time.

I met my first husband in Pittsburgh as his father was transferred here from Chicago.

There are many parts of their story I didn’t include to avoid my post becoming a novel, but I remember everything they told me about their experiences with fascism, antisemitism and cruelty. Everything that happened to them can happen right here. I promise you all it most definitely can.

The false belief that is can’t has been debunked.

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