Kristof, NY Times: Would You Hide a Jew From the Nazis?

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/sunday/would-you-hide-a-jew-from-the-nazis.html

WHEN representatives from the United States and other countries gathered in Evian, France, in 1938 to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis caused by the Nazis, they exuded sympathy for Jews — and excuses about why they couldn’t admit them. Unto the breach stepped a 33-year-old woman from Massachusetts named Martha Sharp.

With steely nerve, she led one anti-Nazi journalist through police checkpoints in Nazi-occupied Prague to safety by pretending that he was her husband.

Another time, she smuggled prominent Jewish opponents of Naziism, including a leading surgeon and two journalists, by train through Germany, by pretending that they were her household workers.

“If the Gestapo should charge us with assisting the refugees to escape, prison would be a light sentence,” she later wrote in an unpublished memoir. “Torture and death were the usual punishments.”

[pampango]

1. Or an undocumented person or a Muslim from a Trump administration?

Admiring courage in others is easier than displaying it yourself.

[CTyankee]

2. I think that is Kristof's point exactly...

[jamzrockz]

5. Really?

Can we please not compare Trump to Hitler. Do you really believe Trump would send illegal immigrants or muslims to death camps? he wants to kick them out not kill them.

[pampango]

6. Fair point but it would still take some degree of bravery to hide them from deportation

if you believed in opposing such government policies - not as much bravery as in Hitler's Germany but some nonetheless.

[jamzrockz]

7. That I agree with

I am sure hiding one of those wanted my Trump's deportation force would come with stiff fines and potential jail time but I don't believe it would come close to what the Nazis did to citizens hiding Jews in areas they controlled.

[Skittles]

12. you have to understand

it did not START that way....it starts with festering the hatred and paranoia, which is exactly what Trump is doing

[eleny]

13. amen to that skittles

i believe that if "many people say" he should do this or that, he would go to places that would shock us.
after all, he wants us to believe him when he says that he can force the military to perform illegal acts.

maybe a small thing but he stands back mute as his supporters shove and punch protestors at his rallies.

maybe a small thing but it's the start you have in mind.

[Wednesdays]

9. The Nazis didn't begin with death camps

A historian can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but my understanding is that mass executions of Jews didn't start until very late...like 1943 or so. Rather, the early Nazi regime began with harassment of Jews and passage of discriminatory laws (something that's not inconceivable in this country). After that the Nazis gradually turned to mass incarceration, and finally to mass executions (which accelerated as it became clear the Nazis were going to lose the war).

[Behind the Aegis]

14. You are correct the Nazis didn't start with the death camps.

However, you are incorrect that the mass exterminations didn't begin until 1943. Mass incarceration of Jews started long before the second World War (as early as 1934), and mass killings began as soon as the war began, they just weren't as "mechanized" or as "efficient" as the concentration and death camps. Millions of Jews were killed "on site" throughout The Pale of Settlement and countries such as Poland, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Romania.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Where do you think

that Hitler started?

[jamzrockz]

16. with

Mein Kampf? he knew from the start what he wanted to do and who it is that needed to be eliminated. We can commit genocide in other countries but we are not going to have another genocide in any of the top western countries like the US and western Europe, just not going to happen Trump or not.

[dembotoz]

3. Or help someone get an a abortion

I hope I am up to the challenge

Who needs an IRA is my retirement will be in prison

[mountain grammy]

4. the people in my area are fairly generous

when it comes to fundraisers for locals in need. But there's a nasty right wing undercurrent here along with fear and hatred for outsiders. We're a tourist community, so we rely heavily on $$ from outside and that keeps them fairly quiet. But our recent Constitution week celebration brought the Trump love and xenophobia right to the forefront with the likes of David Clarke as the keynote speaker and a full show of support for law enforcement in an area that's nearly crime free.
Yes, if roundups began here, I'm sure most of the locals would "cooperate" with authorities.

[WhiteTara]

8. If Trump gets into office this may not be a

rhetorical question.

[Skittles]

11. this I have always known

I am the kind of person who would have hidden as many Jewish folk as I could - yes indeed

[dembotoz]

15. may we never have to find out