Part #1
Dennis Glover - The seven lessons of Nazi history
Occasionally something happens that turns our collective minds to history. That happened this week when Nazis dominated Australian headlines for possibly the first time since the end of World War II.
Australia’s Nazis are rattling the cage, trying to transform themselves from a secretive, mask-wearing sect into a political movement that influences our political ideas and controls the streets through violence. Their leader – bald-headed, dark-shirted, with a statement-making moustache – is staring at us defiantly from our newsfeeds and front pages.
Some might say they’re just a micro-cult of idiots; ignore them and they will go away. Thirty years ago, perhaps, but not now.
To understand why this has changed, we only need to look at the state of the world. Nazi-inspired agitators may be few in number, but they are casting a giant shadow through their explosive ideas and aggressive tactics, which are rapidly being copied by more mainstream politicians who should know better. This is how Nazis have always operated and likely always will. Like all ultra-radical movements that don’t have to deal with messy political realities or worry about the truth, their words and actions have a clarity that is easily understood and has strong appeal to the frustrated, impatient, unheard and unhinged. In Germany, France and Italy, parties inspired by Nazis – or with actual historical roots in Nazism and fascism – are either in power or threatening to achieve it. In the United States, Nazi-like groups were prominently involved in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Let’s not call them neo-Nazis because there’s nothing new about them. Look at how they dress, their violent street tactics, the way they openly admire Adolf Hitler, call themselves his followers, talk of racial purity (white Australians are “thoroughbreds”) and deny the Holocaust. They are Nazis, and proud of it.
To combat them we should look to history and especially to the mistakes our grandparents and great-grandparents made in combatting the original Nazis.