I took the time over the past week to watch all 3 episodes, 6 hours, of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary on the Holocaust.  Parallels were drawn between the United States’ expansion to the West as a white Christian peoples genocide of the native American peoples, which served as inspiration for Germany’s expansion to the East led by Hitler as a white Christian peoples genocide of Jewish and other peoples.  The documentary points out that Hitler was inspired by eugenics and segregationist laws in the United States that were used to keep black people from integrating into society.  According to Burns, the world watched and denied immigration to Jewish refugees before, during, and after the second world war, even after it was publicly known that over 6 million Jewish people had been murdered at industrial death camps across Europe.  The documentary shows footage of United States citizens chanting “Build That Wall” to keep Jewish refugees out.  The documentary shows footage of German citizens chanting “Make Germany Great Again” just before they organized the murder of the Jewish people while the world watched.  It documents that not a single country in the world would allow significant immigration of Jewish refugees to escape the Holocaust.  The point is made that antisemitism has not gone away since.

The documentary focuses on the Holocaust as an example of a larger trend.  The current Unites States Republican party represents Anarcho-capitalist Libertarians whom have teamed up with Trump whom represents the White Christian Nationalists whom have the heterophobic Proud Boys that fight for them and whom stormed the United States capital, tried to implement authoritarian rule and throw out United States democracy on January 6th, 2021.  This is not a Christian idea.  This is not a Jewish idea.  This is not a white or black idea.  This is not a racial or religious idea.  This is not a nationalist idea.  This idea is about money.  This idea is about capital.  I am grateful to Ken Burns and PBS for creating and releasing this film at this appropriate time and making these analogies so apparent to such a broad audience.  I highly recommend taking the time to watch this documentary.