Introduction — 52 Days
January 30, 1933: Nazi Party leader Adolph Hitler is named Chancellor.
February 27: The Parliament building burns and Hitler claims it is part of a Communist assault.
February 28: The Chancellor is granted emergency powers.
March 5: Last elections in Nazi Germany.
March 22: Outside the town of Dachau, the first concentration camp is opened to incarcerate political opponents of the regime.
March 23: Parliament passes the enabling acts that allow Hitler, as Chancellor, to initiate and sign legislation into law without obtaining parliamentary consent. The act effectively establishes a dictatorship in Germany.
Part One
I once asked a priest to define evil. I thought he might take time to consider. Instead, he answered immediately: “Evil is the perversion of good.”
It took Adolph Hitler just 52 days in early 1933 to dismantle the Weimar Republic, a fledgling democracy. Hitler did it by using the Constitution to undo the Constitution.
Led by Nazi lawyer and politician Hans Frank, the entire system of justice underwent Gleichschaltung—synchronization with Nazi goals. What was illegal was redefined. It became illegal for any lawyer to defend those accused of crimes against the state; it became illegal for lawyers to mount any defense that challenged Nazi ideology. Protective custody was redefined as arrest and detainment without a specific charge or judicial review. Laws and citizens’ rights were redefined in coordination with Nazi ideology claiming that one race was superior to others and therefore treated differently under the law. After World War II, in Nuremberg, where the first Aryan laws were introduced, Frank’s laws were redefined once more—as “judicial murder.”
Hitler used intimidation, destabilization, and redefinition. The latter—redefinition—was the most effective and, in the priest’s terms, the most wicked. Redefining is a central piece of any autocratic takeover. For example, in Russia, with the advent of the Soviet Socialist Republic, insanity was officially redefined to include people who opposed communist ideology. The consequence of the diagnosis was forceable commitment.
The United States is now on a similar path. We accepted a leader who rejects truth and science and promotes alternative facts. He has refined the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and used it to deport immigrants even if they are legal residents. The act, used sparingly throughout our history, was intended to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or during an invasion—just as Hitler used the emergency powers after claiming Germany was being invaded by communists.
Congress has ceded power to an executive just as the German parliament did. As federal workers are ousted without cause and without notice, whole agencies are weakened, services cut—it is destabilizing. Officials are threatened if they do not act in accordance with MAGA philosophy—it is intimidating. The changes are cheered by some and chilling to others. This too is a parallel, but there are important differences.
The Kaiser abdicated in 1918. Germany was a monarchy a mere 15 years before Hitler assumed power. Redefinition of the law to bolster Nazi ideology and Hitler’s absolute rule were familiar. The German judiciary capitulated.
That is not the case here. We have enjoyed 250 years of democratic rule. Our judiciary is fighting back. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court reached down and protected a lower court judge from a presidential threat of impeachment. Chief Justice Roberts reminded everyone there are three equal branches of government. A nation’s memories can inspire and inform. We have everything we need to prevail if we can find the will.
It is happening here and now. Don’t equivocate and don’t deny. Some argue that March 15, 2025, the day the executive defied a court ruling, was the last day of America’s democracy—the last of its tripartite, balanced government and the first day of an American dictatorship.
If it is here right now, we cannot stop it, but we can minimize the damage. We can stand in doorways and say you shall not pass. We can support the lawyers and judges. We can demand that their rulings be obeyed. We can protest, and we can protect our neighbors. We can remember, and we can recite what was written in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We can minimize the ill effects right now and into our future.
Tomorrow: “Part Two — Our history can guide us.”
