The Allied victory in 1945 brought relief and joy to Europe, but to some people it was the start of a new nightmare. As the Allies celebrated their victory over the genocidal Nazi regime, Europe was experiencing the start of another ethnic cleansing that would target millions of people purely because of the way they were born or the language they spoke. Millions of innocent people would be removed from their ancestral homes, stripped of their rights and dignity, and told that they deserved it. Torture, rape, and murder awaited hundreds of thousands of them.
Lies of omission are often more powerful that an outright lie.
I remember when I learned as a young man that following the US entrance to WW1 many German immigrants were persecuted. Tarred and feathered. Some killed. I had never heard this before. Even though my great grandfather was a German immigrant.
We humans fail to learn the lessons from history. Everyone suffers from war. Except the elites. The politicians and the bankers/corporate overlords. It struck me at the time I learned about this how Bin Laden is said to have stated that there are no innocent people in the US because they did nothing to stop the US wars in the holy land. That's one way to view the world I guess. It clearly isn't new. Its as old as time and leads to never ending bloodshed.
Just some basic info about the WW1 persecution. Might be good to remember this kind of stuff and how it repeats.
President Woodrow Wilson declared all German nationals “enemy aliens,” stripping them of rights. They were required to register, carry identification, and were barred from working near military installations or in Washington, D.C. Over 2,000 Germans were interned in camps, including prominent figures like Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Karl Muck.
Cultural Erasure: German language and culture were systematically suppressed. German was banned in schools and public life. German-language newspapers were censored or shut down. German music (e.g., Bach, Beethoven) was removed from concert programs. Foods like sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” and dachshunds were renamed “liberty hounds.”
Violence and Lynchings: Physical attacks were common. In Collinsville, Illinois, German-born immigrant Robert Prager was lynched in 1918 after being falsely accused of espionage. He was stripped, forced to walk on broken glass, made to sing patriotic songs, and hanged in a public spectacle. The local newspaper declared his death a “wholesome lesson” to others.
Social and Economic Harassment: German-American businesses were boycotted. German street names were changed. People with German-sounding names faced job loss and social ostracism. The American Protective League, a volunteer group of 250,000 members, spied on suspected disloyalty, often targeting German Americans.
Propaganda and Dehumanization: The U.S. government and media portrayed Germans as “Huns”—brutal, uncivilized, and subhuman. This dehumanizing rhetoric justified persecution and fueled mob violence.
I love America. I love the land and the people. I do not love the state. It feeds on the worst in us.
The more history you familiarize yourself with the more you realize that it just repeats. Some leaders are worse than others. Some governments are worse than others. Some nations (people) are worse than others at times. But these things are everywhere when you look for them.
They appear in every "just" war. I don't expect everyone to be anti-war but we should be honest about it. The good vs. evil stuff is wrong on both accounts.
Even when you look at the crusades. Its not as simple as good vs. evil. Nor with WW1 or WW2. We drown in evil. Evil, and more evil. And evil to stop evil. War is hell. War is the life of the state.
I do remember learning that WWII was basically a consequence of how the aftermath of WWI left Germany frustrated by the consequences imposed on them by the Allied forces. Your account seems to be a detailed description of that fact. Thanks.
That created the circumstances where a man like Hitler and his message resonated with the masses. I beleive that had the US stayed out of WW1 the powers would have ended the war with a less weakened Germany and there would have been no massive debt imposed on the people.
We would have never heard of Hitler. But hindsight is 20/20 and President Wilson had a savior complex.
Omg my mind is blown!! I had no idea this happened?!?
I still remember reading about this years ago in a book about the aftermath of WW2 Europe. It was pretty jarring to me at the time. Reading about the horrible abuse of women at the hands of US GIs especially. I wasn't surprised by the stuff the Russians did but that is mostly due to growing up in the 80s and being taught to hate them.
I have no problem imagining people being cool with doing this now. In any country. They just have to be primed. The Nazi regime did a great job stoking hate of the German people. But this stuff just escalates. We see it in Israel now. Each side believes their actions are justified.
You are correct for sure. I often think US has made so many enemies with his war on terror. All the innocent civilians who were blown up in this fight for fleeting justice.
I think the bombing of innocent citizens is just as evil as slavery and also what we did to the Germans after WWI and yet Americans still feel like we have the moral high ground.
It burns my soul at all the evil America has brought to the world I can only hope God has mercy on our souls.
100%
Germany is now cleansing its own population with Muslims from shithole nations.
20 percent of Germany is now foreign born, a higher ratio than in America which has millions of wetbacks who can't speak a lick of English
It is even worse. 20percent sounds like nothing. You can be happy if 20% of a class is real germans. You have over 80% non germans.
But here comes the trick: if somebody is born in germany he is considered german, even if the whole family just moved there a day ago. more than 10years in germany and you can be german. Left wing even pushing for getting german identity after only a few years inside germany.
Other fun facts,
In the years prior to US entrance in WW2, a German of all people was convicted of kidnapping the Charles Lindbergh (America First Committee, anti-WW2, very famous and influential) baby. This made a German the most hated man in America, and derailed a significant isolationists life at a critical time, and made the Lindbergh law passable which effectively created national policing and J Edgar Hoover to craft the FBI identity we know now.
After the war, Patton himself said we fought the wrong enemy. Died after a suspicious accident.
And yet, people still deny we're constantly subject to unfathomably well coordinated, resourced, military precision levels of psychological and clandestine operations that shape the world for decades.
Being a patriot is dangerous as we've learned, and requires even more sophisticated deception and planning.
War is a Racket
Check out the book Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans after World War II
More than 1 million disarmed German soldiers were killed in concentration camps, after WW2. There was one just outside of the town that my father was born in.
Here's a blurb from a review on Amazon.
For those who observe and those who tell the story, it's easy to give titles to dead things like nations; the good guys are the ones who killed thousands of innocent people with two bombs.
Even today, these "authorities" commit all kinds of crimes and their agents believe they are just following orders, just like always. Concentration camps, executions, and kidnappings—nothing has changed and nothing will change because you don't matter as an individual; what matters is the fantasy you wear in their heads.
The bad evil pedophiles won the war