After Auschwitz

July 3, 2018

This morning I stopped in a second-hand book to pick up something to read.  One of the books I picked up is After Auschwitz written by Eva Schloss stepsister to Anne Frank and published in 2013.  I began reading the story of a fifteen-year-old girl arrested with her family and send to Auschwitz.  No more than three pages into the book and I read this:

“Many things have changed in the world since the end of World War Two. Unfortunately, prejudice and discrimination have not.  From the Civil Rights Movement in the United States to Apartheid South Africa, the war in the former Yugoslavia to those caught in the ongoing conflicts in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, I saw people across the world struggling to be treated with equal human dignity and understanding.  And as a Jewish person, I saw that even the truth about the Holocaust had not woken the world to the full horror of anti-Semitism. Today there are still many scapegoats based on the color of someone’s skin, their background, their sexuality – or their religion.”

As I read this, my stomach churned, and I became ashamed that the persons who hold the highest offices in the United States continue the divisive rhetoric of us against them.  People who should exhibit higher standards of standing against any kind of discrimination do not.  Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Jeff Sessions encourage discrimination against people whose skin is not white, or who chose to practice sexuality that differs from theirs.  They have zero-tolerance which allow for the destruction of families. Allowing for children to be ripped from the mother’s and father’s and placed in detention cages. Much like Ann Frank, Eva Schloss and thousands of children were by the Nazis. Thus we have “make America Great Again” the standard for this discrimination.  The standard which allows for those that believe White Christian’s should be in charge to rage through the streets and harras people indiscriminately.

There is currently a call for Civility which ended as soon as Trump announce make America Great Again!  “Again” being some undefined point in time when American was greater then it is now.  When was that?  Was it the 1800’s, the early 1900’s, the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, or 2015.  Come on Trump supporters when was American Grater then it was when Trump came along to make it greater; WHEN?  To some, it was when Negro's knew their place, to some when women knew their place, to others, it was when this country did not allow people fleeing from the horrors of their country, looking for asylum and the promise of a safe life and came to American seeking it; whenever that was!