The Origins of this Blog

The Origins of this Blog    

    As a child one of my fictional heroes was Indiana Jones. The action, the soundtrack, and the fight scenes had my full attention. The best of the films to date are Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. The common and nonfictional enemy in both those films is the National Socialist German Workers Party more commonly called Nazis. At a young age I was fascinated with these villains. Who are they, why do they sound different than I do, why do they want the Ark of the Covenant or the Diary of Henry Jones Sr., why do they dress so stylish, and most importantly, why do they hate books so much? Yes the last being a reference to the infamous Berlin book burning rally in front of the State Opera House on May 10, 1933. These two movies and these villains sparked my interest in the history of one of the most beautiful countries on our planet, Germany. I became obsessed with that era in their history, with the language, and culture. I was so obsessed with the language that I would, at times, make international calls to Germany (which at that time was still a divided nation), just to hear people speak in German. It was never more than, "Hallo Anna Holz heir," before I would hang up in fear of international phone charges. I never knew if I was dialing into East or West Germany. All I knew at that time was that I needed and wanted to go Germany and needed to learn German. 

    I grew up in deep south Texas in a deeply religious home. Growing up in the Mormon Church, all males are expected to service a two year mission abroad teaching and converting other people to Mormonism. As I grew up I would pray that when I turned nineteen and got my mission call that I would be going to Germany. Sadly my dreams of going to Germany on my mission were dashed, put on hold, and almost forgotten about when I opened up my mission call and found out I was staying inside the United States. So, I served my mission, I came home two years later, and then moved to Utah to pursue a college education. After many years I finally enrolled with determination to earn my degree in US and European History. My advisor told me that with that degree I would be required to learn a foreign language. "These are your options," my academic advisor told me and he began reading off the language classes available at the university. At this time, remind you, my aspirations to go to Germany were still forgotten until I heard the advisor list German as an option. The fire within me instantly reignited and I enrolled in my first German class. The first day of German class the dean of the German language department filled in for the regular professor. He played Peter Schilling's song "Völlig losgelöst (Major Tom is the English title.) After the song he told the class that he would be leading a group of students that coming summer on a month long study abroad program to Berlin, Germany. My hand was in the air volunteering to go before he could finish asking who in the class was interested. 
    During this same span of time from 1998 till 2015 I had also began having a political awakening and began noticing a rise in fascism and ultra nationalism not only in my home state of Texas but also across red states across the nation. The spark that lit the flame of my political awakening was the vicious murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas in the summer of 1998 by two white supremacists. When I moved to Utah I did not know that I was also moving to a state that is redder than Texas and for several years I was ok with that due to my conservative upbringing. My studies in college did the rest. I was introduced to authors and historians who's names until those times, were unknown to me. Timothy Snyder, Richard J. Evans, Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Carter Hett, Leon F. Litwack Anne Applebaum, and Saul Friedländer just to name a few. Their research into the origins of fascism, Nazism, Communism, and Jim Crow laws set my mind on fire. I consumed book after book by these authors expanding my education which eventually lead to separating myself from Mormonism when extreme right wing politics found its way to the pulpits and Sunday schools therein. Still, after all this, I had no desire to begin to write about topics like this until I saw a radical shift to the far right in the Republican party  as soon as then Senator Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee for the 2008 presidential elections. We all know of the terribly racists things that were said about the former president during his initial campaign and his subsequent eight years as President of the United States. I honestly did not believe things could get worse until June 15, 2016 when Donald Trump Sr. spoke at his Trump Tower in New York City and announced his bid for president of the United States. Again, we all heard the lies, hate, and misinformation that Donald Trump claimed to be truth in that speech and as we all was over the subsequent four years. 

    After returning from my study abroad program in Berlin, Germany. I made it a goal to return to Germany every year. The following summer I returned to Berlin for a two week vacation. My first Sunday there I had an appointment with the Reichstag for a tour the building. Half way there, I found myself at Potsdamer Platz and straight ahead several blocks away was the Brandenburg Gate. If you have been to Berlin you know that the Reichstag is just past the Brandenburg Gate. As I kept walking I began hearing the beat of a kettle or bass drum. Curiosity got the better of me and I deviated from the path to the Reichstag to the sound of the beating drums. As I drew closer the air became smoke filled and parade cars began to appear. The streets and side walks were filled with people and for a moment I thought I had walked into some kind of parade...until I caught up to the crowd. It was a massive citywide protest against a extreme right wing political party called Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The AfD have racist and bigoted views towards immigrants, Jews, and people of color...much like the NSDAP did in Germany during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. Pariser Platz, which is where the Brandenburg Gate lies was completely pack with Anti Fascist protesters who were shouting at the AfD and the AfD were incredibly outnumbered. If you think Pariser Platz being full of Anti Fascists was a sight to see, their numbers filled the Tiergarten and the one mile stretch of road between the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Victory Column and all the way to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (the main and central train station). I joined in the protest walking down the streets of Berlin with the crowd and came face to face with a few neo-Nazis in the process though no violence occurred.  

    The final straws for me in creating this blog is the rise of race and  religious based hate crimes in the United States under the Trump administration and the dog whistles the now former president Trump spoke when addressing the issue of extreme nationalism. Telling the Proud Boys to, "stand back and stand by," calling neo-Nazis "very fine people," and then, finally on January 6, 2021 seeing President Trump, Don Jr., and Rudy Giuliani incite mob violence at the Capitol building as trump supporters stormed the capitol building and tried to take top government officials hostage. There was even talk among them about holding a mock trial and executing them all because Trump could not accept the fact that he lost the election. So dear reader, if you are still here reading, here is the last part and purpose of this blog. 

I am making this blog for the intent of educating people on the dangers of two "isms" though books I have collected or come across on these subjects. The two "isms" are Fascism and Nationalism. There won't be any chronological timeline going from Mussolini to Hitler. There will just be books and highlighted passages therein, peer reviewed documents on the topic I have found, and  every once in a while a noteworthy documentary film on these topics. Due to my busy work schedule and to the fact that I will be reading completely through the books before posting about them, the Twitter  and Instagram accounts for this blog will be more active than this blog so please check them out and follow them. Those two accounts will also contain relevant history based photos to the main topics of this blog from my trips to Germany. 

Side note. 
I will be updating the look and design of this blog to give it better appeal and attraction in the coming days or weeks.