As 21st-century Americans, we have a lot of our own history to look back on. We should also look back at important events in world history. Ignoring that history can create a troubling scenario.
I’m especially troubled by people who have ignored the reality of world history during the 20th century. Especially people who ignore what happened to Europe during the 1930s and 1940s and make declarations like “Hitler was right.”
The recent upsurge in antisemitism, probably related to actions taken by Israel’s current government, may play a role. But applauding the actions of a monster like Hitler totally ignores what really happened.
Hitler’s Nazi government transformed most of Europe, both before and during World War II, evoking almost incredible depths of cruelty and destruction. The Holocaust systematically killed millions of European Jews in an overwhelmingly evil plan that still shocks us today. But we should remember that the Holocaust was only part of the cruel and destructive Nazi regime. Hitler wasn’t just about killing Jews. He went on to kill millions of people in every occupied country in Europe, as well as tens of thousands killed in the London blitz. And we should add to this number the estimated 21 to 25 million members of the military killed in combat during World War II. Tens of millions more were wounded.
One early example of the damage done to so much of Europe appeared on my TV the other night. Searching for something to watch, I clicked on Netflix, which offered me the chance to see a 2016 film, “Anthropoid.” The Netflix blurb said that the film involved Czech patriots opposed to the Nazis, and it starred engaging actors like Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan. I decided to take a chance on it.
As the film begins, the audience learns about the Munich Agreement, the attempted appeasement of Hitler in September 1938, which allowed the Nazis to take over much of a hitherto-independent country, Czechoslovakia, without firing a shot. The audience can watch newsreel coverage of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waving the piece of paper that allowed that to happen. The film goes on to feature seven brave Czechs who, following the orders of the Czech resistance based in London, parachuted into their home country to fight the Nazis who had taken over Czechoslovakia.
The film focuses on two of these parachutists, played by Murphy and Dornan, who were given the mission called “Anthropoid” to assassinate Nazi General Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich, the top Nazi in Prague, ran a ruthless and brutal campaign against Czechs who resisted the Nazis.
In the film, these two loyal Czechs (named Jan and Josef) endure tremendous stress as they prepare for their task. Along with brave women and men living in Prague who help them, they finally succeed at assassinating Heydrich. The reprisals happen immediately.
While Jan and Josef are hunted, many others in the resistance are rounded up and massacred. The film reveals that about 5,000 Czechs were killed in retaliation. An entire village, Lidice, was wiped out.
I won’t reveal what ultimately happens to Jan and Josef and the other parachutists. But I’ll add that I found much of the film almost unwatchable. Because it clearly demonstrates the cruelty of the Nazi regime under Hitler, some scenes were terribly difficult to watch. I fast-forwarded through these scenes as well as I could. (Not easy to do with streaming.)
I’ve visited Prague myself, and I know that the Jewish population there was devastated by the Nazis. But there is no mention of Jews throughout this film. Its focus is on the cruelty suffered by the brave Czech patriots whose story it tells.
This film is a potent reminder of recent world history. If we don’t ignore this history, and we honestly look at what happened to Europe under the Nazis, we can see how much of Europe, including Germany itself, was almost irreparably damaged. Let’s remember that local populations were terrified by their Nazi occupiers, with only a few people brave enough to fight in the resistance–at least until V-E Day in April 1945, when the Allies finally freed Europe from Nazi cruelty.
The vivid story told in “Anthropoid” makes clear how vital it is to pay attention to history. Its story is a cautionary tale, serving as a warning for us today. If we look back at the ruthless pursuit of cruelty in the Nazi era, we can learn to watch for signs of cruelty as they occur in our own time. These signs are appearing in our country more and more frequently. And as author Timothy Snyder writes in On Tyranny: “We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to…Nazism…. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”
And we must, like the Czech patriots in “Anthropoid,” screw up our courage and oppose them. At the ballot box if nowhere else.
susanjustwrites
Susan Just Writes 