Lest We Forget

Lest we forget…

From 1933 to 1945 Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, carried out the systemic persecution and extermination of the European Jewry. Jews were enslaved. Dehumanized. Put to work for their captors. Indiscriminately slaughtered and exploited. The reason? Because they were of the wrong ethnicity and they had no means of protecting themselves. 6 million jews were murdered or died as a result of their captivity.

From before its inception until 1865, the United States, its celebrated leaders, and its people, carried out institutionalized African American slavery. Slaves were dehumanized, put to work for their oppressors. Indiscriminately slaughtered and exploited. The reason? Because they were of the wrong ethnicity and they had no means of protecting themselves. 10s of millions of African Americans were murdered or died as a result of their captivity.

While there are many similarities between the Holocaust and slavery, the differences in how they are viewed is striking and tragic. The ideologies that enabled the Holocaust and the symbols of the Nazi perpetrators were destroyed. Perhaps more importantly, they continue to be seen as a threat. Only through remembrance and constant vigilance can another Holocaust be prevented.

Meanwhile, the ideologies that permitted and perpetuated slavery were allowed to be spread from generation to generation. Symbols of slavery and those that supported it were never outlawed or destroyed. The horrors of slavery were allowed to be folded neatly into American society, to lay latent within and forgotten by white citizens, and thus covertly perpetuated.

The symbol of the Nazis is well known. The image burns stark as a representation of absolute evil. To fly that flag or wear that symbol is not an expression of free speech. It is an expression of hate speech. It indicates complicity with and celebration of what the Nazi regime stood for. Lest we forget: Nazis stood for antisemitism, scientific racism, and eugenics.

The German Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code) section 86a prohibits the distribution or public use of Nazi symbols. It is not displayed above any government buildings. It does not adjourn the vehicles of beloved television characters. Those that fought for it are not memorialized in statues and celebrated for their sacrifice.

The battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, “The Stars and Bars,” continues to be sold, displayed, celebrated, and rallied beneath. It is often viewed along the same lines as the Gadsden Flag, a symbol of prideful freedom against an indistinct oppressor. Ironically, many justify the confederate flag’s continued display with first amendment freedoms, when in fact it represents the exact opposite.

(Note: The celebrated American patriot Christopher Gadsden, creator of the popular flag and its Don’t Tread on Me message was a slave trader and owner of slaves.)

Many that rally around the confederate battle flag believe the Civil War was fought for vague reasons. Confederate apologists cite philosophical differences between Federalists and pro-states’ rights, ignoring the underlying ideology that it stands for.

Lest we forget: the Confederacy stood for slavery. In the Cornerstone Address, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens asserted that the Confederacy was based “upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.”

(Note: Alexander Stephens was later elected governor of Georgia. For context, that is the equivalent of Heinrich Himmler being elected to public office after World War II.)

The Confederacy of the United States relied on African-American slave labor. Slavery was the driver of its economy and needed to be perpetuated for the Confederacy to exist.

Article I, Section 9, subsection 4 of the Constitution of the Confederate States reads: “No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.”

Additionally, Article IV, Section 3, subsection 3 reads: In all such territory (acquired by and added to the Confederate States) the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected”

In other words, slavery was a pillar of the Confederacy of the United States. As long as that country and the ideologies that created it existed, the institution of slavery would stand immortal.

The Holocaust was government sponsored as well. The Nazi party used progressive legal actions to consolidate power and impose laws that supported its ideological goals, including racial purification. Thankfully, those laws were abolished with the Nazi regime in 1945.

Compare that to slavery United States and you will see the opposite. Jim Crow laws in the segregated south allowed de facto slavery to continue in plain sight long after the 13th amendment was ratified.

The strange thing is that most United States citizens agree that slavery is evil and morally reprehensible. The horrors of American slavery are well documented. They are taught in schools and depicted emotively in movies. Yet many Americans are unable to see the personal responsibility they bear in slavery’s continuation after abolition. Many do not know or ignore the role that they play in perpetuating racist ideologies. Many become surprised and indignant when African Americans have issues with continued systematic oppression. Many believe the abolition of slavery in 1865 was enough.

It was not enough.

Just ending the Holocaust was not enough. It needed to be remembered. The ideologies that propagated it, and the symbols that Nazi ideologues rally around must be continually called out and destroyed. All citizens of the world must continue to combat the reemergence of hate speech and discriminating laws. All must be constantly vigilant and speak up against the pervasive genocidal potential that humans have shown throughout history. Only through remembrance can those that suffered and continue to suffer be healed.

However, the wounds of slavery were never closed. They have been allowed to remain open for over 150 years. Lest we forget: All white citizens are responsible. All white citizens did this and remain complicit as long as the symbology and ideology of slavery persists. The victims of slavery must be remembered and advocated for.

As long as racist ideologies and symbols are ignored and apologized for in the United States, all citizens should see themselves as no better than Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.