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Letter to the editor:
I am
writing to express my deep concern about Republican
congressional candidate Allen West's repeated comparisons of our
country to Nazi Germany. While I respect the constitutional
right to free speech and expressing differences in opinion, it
is an offensive and unacceptable analogy. Whether or not Mr.
West likes the direction of our country, there is nothing that
is happening to warrant comparing the United States to Adolf
Hitler and the Nazis.
I am
troubled by Mr. West's comments, which have been viewed more
than 22,000 times on YouTube and show him giving a speech in
which he said, "In 1930 there was a gentleman in Germany who
took away private gun ownership, and you know what happened to
that population." Mr. West's use of the word gentleman in
reference to Hitler is repulsive. It is unconscionable to call
Hitler a gentleman, since he was responsible for the systematic
persecution and annihilation of many groups at death camps. The
genocide claimed the lives of Catholics and Protestants, 6
million Jews, up to 3.5 million non-Jewish Poles, 3.5 to 6
million other Slavic civilians, up to 1.5 million political
dissidents, 500,000 Gypsies, more than 10,000 homosexuals, 2,000
Jehovah's Witnesses and people with disabilities. Following his
comment about Hitler being a gentleman, Mr. West said, "You must
be well-informed and well-armed because this government that we
have now is a tyrannical government."
Unfortunately this was not a one-time occurrence, as evidenced
by Mr. West's previous interviews and speeches. In a radio
interview with Libertarian Politics Live in 2008, Mr. West said,
"The last thing I want to see is for political rallies in the
United States to start looking like the Nuremberg rallies back
in the late 1930s."
Mr. West's
linking our country to the Nazis not only diminishes the horror
of the Holocaust but belittles the millions who suffered
unfathomable horrors and even execution. By invoking our country
in the same breath as a ruthless, murderous totalitarian state,
Mr. West is drawing a dangerous comparison. This insensitive
analogy also suggests Mr. West lacks respect for the Jewish
people and all those who died in the Holocaust.
BURT
AARONSON
West Palm
Beach
Editor's
note: Burt Aaronson is a Palm Beach County commissioner.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/letters/letters-wests-linking-of-u-s-to-nazi-798933.html
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Ref.: Your
Letter to the Editor of the Palm Beach Post, 07/13/2010
Dear Mr Aaronson,
You are
completely right to refute Mr Allen West’s remarks comparing
Nazi-Germany with the US. It is not only despicable in the
general sense, but also false in its details. Please, let me
explain:
Mr West
mentions a “gentleman” in the year of 1930 who, he claims, took
away the German citizens’ right to bear arms. Obviously he
wanted the listener to associate this “gentleman” with Adolf
Hitler. A short look into the history books could have taught
him that Hitler was not yet in power at that date. First
Herrmann Müller, a Social Democrat, and then Heinrich Brüning, a
Christian Democrat of the Zentrum Party, were Chancellors
during that year. Hitler achieved that post only in 1933.
The laws
concerning guns in private hands took a completely different
turn than Mr. West indicates. Up to WW1 there were only a few
restrictions, mainly prohibiting concealed weapons. After the
war the new democratic government under President Ebert tried to
disarm the newly emerged antidemocratic elements of the
dissolved imperial army, the basis of many later fascist groups.
Non-military weapons were not regulated. This was only done
after 1920 as a result of Allied demands at the Versailles
Conference. Private ownership of any guns was prohibited. Only
in 1928 this decision was reversed and private citizens could
apply for a permit and purchase weapons again.
After the
Nazis took over they had an ambivalent approach. They
confiscated all weapons in the hands of Jews and political
opponents by raiding their homes (Albert Einstein's home in
Caputh near Potsdam included), they passed a special law in 1936
prohibiting Jews to have any weapons, and finally they
liberalized the gun laws for “law abiding citizens” in 1938 by
getting rid of the need to apply for permits before buying guns.
After WW2 the
Allied Forces prohibited private ownership of any weapons...
In short we
could say the more progressive parties tried to restrict the
spread of weapons whereas the ultra-rightists and Nazis stood
for “Guns For All”, at least as long as they were no Jews,
Gypsies, or political opponents.
Sincerely,
Guenter
Langer
Langer's unabridged
letter was sent to us by the author.
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