PBS - an American Experience every GLBT needs to see
I just finished watching PBS's American Experience tonight. The episode reminded me not only of this earlier post of mine . . . but also of this post on Pam's House Blend.
The particular episode of American Experience addressed The Nuremberg Trials. While listening to the Nazi defendants, I could not help but note how very much the Nazi German views on race, religion, and "others" sound like the fine Muslim commentator I quoted below - the commentator from the "Moderate Religious Islamic" website?
But, sadly, the mind-numbing parallels between both Nazi mythology and social stereotypes and subsequent Islamic Anti-Semitism is not the only disturbing parallel from 1935 to today. I noticed another parallel, too - one that came directly from the film clips of the prosecution of Hermann Goering.
That parallel was, believe it or not, the very basis for the Nuremberg Trials over 60 years ago.
And that parallel?
That parallel was in the text of The Nuremberg Laws, passed and amended by Hermann Goering and ratified by the Reichstag at various points in 1935.
The Nuremberg Laws - passed after the Nazis managed to go from being elected officials with great popular support to the sole dictators of the land, using frenzy, racism, nationalism, and hatred (towards leftists, intellectuals, different races, etc.) to keep their momentum richly fueled into 1945.
The Nuremberg Laws proved to be the backbone of the Allied case against Hermann Goering in the Nuremberg Trials. It was those laws that held together the Allied Prosecution's claim that Goering preplanned, in minute detail, to violate the peace, to dehumanize unwanted citizens, to commit acts of illegal war, to commit war crimes, and to commit crimes against humanity: all those acts on the part of Goering were, according to tonight's American Experience, developed their framework from The Nuremberg Laws . . . and those laws were drawn with premeditation, given the body of evidence against both Goering and the Nazis.
And what about The Nuremberg Laws is so disturbing today?
Only one particular element in the context of GLBT life, given the debates we GLBT folk are having today.
Check out the first article under The Nuremberg Laws, reprinted here from the English site Sparticus Schoolnet:
Yep - that's right: the first bit of Anti-Jewish legislation passed by the Nazis was controlling the right for Jews, partial Jews, and Non-Jews to marry.
But don't take my word for it.
Check out what American Experience has to say. And for that matter, what The History Place, The US Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Jewish Virtual Library, Wikipedia, and Sparticus Schoolnet itself say.
I'll gladly spoon-feed ya, actually: they say what I've just told you above.
And that is why both the guy in this House Blend post (the queer who lost Kerry's first National Campaign: seems Kerry sunk the second issues campaign on Alito all on his own) and those who so stridently, ardently, loudly shout, "Play to the center! Don't rock the boat! Go along with the program!" should collectively have the holy-living-shit slapped out of them.
Speaking for myself, the mantra "Never Again!" really means "Never."
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The particular episode of American Experience addressed The Nuremberg Trials. While listening to the Nazi defendants, I could not help but note how very much the Nazi German views on race, religion, and "others" sound like the fine Muslim commentator I quoted below - the commentator from the "Moderate Religious Islamic" website?
But, sadly, the mind-numbing parallels between both Nazi mythology and social stereotypes and subsequent Islamic Anti-Semitism is not the only disturbing parallel from 1935 to today. I noticed another parallel, too - one that came directly from the film clips of the prosecution of Hermann Goering.
That parallel was, believe it or not, the very basis for the Nuremberg Trials over 60 years ago.
And that parallel?
That parallel was in the text of The Nuremberg Laws, passed and amended by Hermann Goering and ratified by the Reichstag at various points in 1935.
The Nuremberg Laws - passed after the Nazis managed to go from being elected officials with great popular support to the sole dictators of the land, using frenzy, racism, nationalism, and hatred (towards leftists, intellectuals, different races, etc.) to keep their momentum richly fueled into 1945.
The Nuremberg Laws proved to be the backbone of the Allied case against Hermann Goering in the Nuremberg Trials. It was those laws that held together the Allied Prosecution's claim that Goering preplanned, in minute detail, to violate the peace, to dehumanize unwanted citizens, to commit acts of illegal war, to commit war crimes, and to commit crimes against humanity: all those acts on the part of Goering were, according to tonight's American Experience, developed their framework from The Nuremberg Laws . . . and those laws were drawn with premeditation, given the body of evidence against both Goering and the Nazis.
And what about The Nuremberg Laws is so disturbing today?
Only one particular element in the context of GLBT life, given the debates we GLBT folk are having today.
Check out the first article under The Nuremberg Laws, reprinted here from the English site Sparticus Schoolnet:
I) Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour (15th September, 1935)
Imbued with the insight that the purity of German blood is prerequisite for the continued existence of the German people and inspired by the inflexible will to ensure the existence of the German nation for all times, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following law, which is hereby promulgated:
(1) Marriages between Jews and subjects of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to circumvent this law.
(2) Only the state attorney may initiate the annulment suit.
(3) Extramarital intercourse between Jews and subjects of German or kindred blood is forbidden.
(4) Jews must not employ in their households female subjects of German or kindred blood who are under forty-five years old.
(5) Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich and national flag and to display the Reich colors.
(6) They are, on the other hand, allowed to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right enjoys the protection of the state.
etc . . .
Yep - that's right: the first bit of Anti-Jewish legislation passed by the Nazis was controlling the right for Jews, partial Jews, and Non-Jews to marry.
But don't take my word for it.
Check out what American Experience has to say. And for that matter, what The History Place, The US Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Jewish Virtual Library, Wikipedia, and Sparticus Schoolnet itself say.
I'll gladly spoon-feed ya, actually: they say what I've just told you above.
And that is why both the guy in this House Blend post (the queer who lost Kerry's first National Campaign: seems Kerry sunk the second issues campaign on Alito all on his own) and those who so stridently, ardently, loudly shout, "Play to the center! Don't rock the boat! Go along with the program!" should collectively have the holy-living-shit slapped out of them.
Speaking for myself, the mantra "Never Again!" really means "Never."
