Democracy vs. fascism: I was wrong

In my books, plays and articles that reference World War II, I initially believed that the vast majority of Germans would maintain their Nazi beliefs and commitments indefinitely, brainwashed by Adolf Hitler’s charisma and lies. They would not abandon fascism simply because they lost the war to a democracy. I was wrong. Similarly, I speculated that if America had lost the war to Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany the vast majority of Americans would not abandon our commitments to democracy, flawed as it might be, would not turn their backs on the 400,000 Americans who died in that war to preserve our democracy, and would not succumb to the charisma and lies of an authoritarian seeking dictatorial leadership in our country. I was wrong about that, too.

My observations and experiences as an American soldier in Europe during the war and in the post-war occupation of Germany motivated my beliefs. Most GIs who served in Europe in WWII will tell you that they, as I, rarely met any German who admitted being a Nazi. It appeared that no one knew about the death camps despite the fact that one had to be blind, deaf, and have no sense of smell not to know. Our Military Government occupation forces did little, at least at first, to re-educate the population. Many Burgermeisters (mayors) continued in the same positions they had held under Hitler. While a number of Nazi officials and SS soldiers were put on trial, others were welcomed into the new political party alignment by our Military Government, with Nazis joining the U.S.-backed conservative Christian Democrat Union as opposed to the democracy-seeking Social Democratic Party. Groups of young Nazis bent on vengeance emerged quickly. The Werewolves, for example, sought and killed American GIs who, despite a no-fraternization rule, went alone off-base for companionship and sex from German women. Many German women heeded Adolf Hitler’s reported radio exhortation that if the German men did not win the war, the German women would have to win the peace.

Within a decade many Germans, principally young men and women who developed an objective interest and view of what their parents and grandparents permitted, supported and did during the Third Reich, including the Holocaust, not only questioned the past but actively criticized it, taking on the guilt of their forebearers. Many became the most dedicated anti-fascists I have encountered. I knew one young German who committed suicide because he could not live with the guilt of his parents. Groups consisting of perpetrators and their children and grandchildren along with victims and their progeny convened to better understand how and why Nazism and the Holocaust happened. One such group was One By One, at whose meetings I spoke in Berlin and in New York. In more recent years I continue to speak in the U.S. and in other countries, principally Germany, at events designed to keep alive the lessons of fascism and the defense of democracy.

In 2017, a few months into Donald Trump’s presidency, The News-Press published my op ed, “The Candidate and the President,” in which I detailed factually the policies and actions of a charismatic political leader who became president of his country. At the end of the op ed I stated his name: Adolf Hitler. I received angry feedback accusing me of comparing Donald Trump with Hitler. But at no time or place in the op ed did I mention Trump’s name. Trump supporters themselves found comparisons between Hitler and Trump. In effect, Trump advocates supported a candidate whose beliefs and actions they found similar to those of Hitler, but they refused to acknowledge that they supported fascism. And it appears that they still maintain the same commitment. If current pre-elections polls are correct, it seems that the majority of Republican voters have succumbed to Trump’s charisma and proven lies, similar to what happened to the “good “ Germans in 1933 and 1934.

In 1999, the book "Waves of Rancor: Tuning in the Radical Right," by Michael C. Keith and me, was published and selected by President Bill Clinton as one of 12 books on his annual recommended reading list that year. A seminal study, the book analyzed in the words of their leaders the goals, plans, and policies of some of the principal hate groups in the United States at the time. Those active organizations included the Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, Skinheads, Christian Identity, Armed Militias and other groups dedicated, among other hate practices, to antisemitism, racism, homophobia, anti-immigration, and against the rights of women to control their own bodies. Many of their leaders were not, as sometimes stereotyped, “crazies,” but educated, professionally respected citizens in their communities. While there were membership crossovers, there was no acknowledged national leadership for the up to five million estimated active members. They operated, in the main, as quasi-underground groups. In a little over a decade they emerged into the open, having found a charismatic leader. These fascist organizations constituted the core support for Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and still remain, albeit with some different names, as a base of his support.

Many individual states have turned extremist right, bowdlerizing the history of and marginalizing minority groups, banning books, denying equal rights and services to targeted people such as LGBTQ, attempting to control the media, restricting voting opportunities, substituting politicians for educational experts at all levels, vilifying immigrants fleeing starvation, rape and murder, and establishing policies and practices similar and even identical to many of those of Hitler’s Germany in 1933 and 1934. The parallels include the pro-fascists use of force and violence to achieve their goals, a parallel to the failed Hitler “putsch” to overthrow the Bavarian state’s operations in 1923 with the failed Trump-encouraged attempt to do the same with the United States Congress on January 6, 2021. The Washington Post has noted that “millions of Americans believe the use of force is justified to prevent Trump’s prosecution and return him to the White House.“

With the 2024 presidential election holding an answer as to whether America will be a de facto fascist country in 2025, I fear that there may not be enough voters, especially Republicans, who still believe in democracy over fascism. I hope I am once again wrong.

Robert Hilliard is a World War II veteran, former federal government official and college dean who lives on Sanibel.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Democracy vs. fascism: I was wrong