by Teresa Trenary, Missoula
On a cold January day in 2009, I visited the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., for the first time. I spent the entire day there, and as sadness gripped my soul, I had one question, “How did a man filled with such hate recruit enough followers to commit unspeakable atrocities in his name?” No matter what Hitler said or did, the crowds kept cheering. Later they would claim, “But I didn’t know!” By then, it was too late.
Last fall I visited Hitler’s death camps in Poland– Auschwitz and Birkenau. I was overcome with the tragedy of millions of souls discarded there but not before they endured cruelty beyond measure. I prayed human
kind would never again be capable of such barbarism.
But here we are. The Republican candidate for president spews nothing but hateful rhetoric and lies and has been found guilty of sexual assault and 34 counts of fraud. He has no sense of accountability for his actions, even when he has hurt others yet sees no reason to apologize and blames others for his actions. He has not paid his bills to small business owners who lost their livelihoods due to his deliberate negligence. Further, he has not paid the expenses incurred by towns that hosted him in Montana and elsewhere. Yet, his followers still count in the millions.
And most troubling, related to my disturbing visits to the sites of mass tragedy in Europe, the Republican nominee for president has vowed, if reelected, mass deportations of the undocumented in our country and plans a series of “camps” to hold them until they meet their uncertain fates. Terrifying echoes of the 1930s and 1940s to be sure.
It is time we LEARN from history so as NOT to repeat it.