One of the mistakes Germans (+ occupying forces) and the Austrians made after WW II was pardoning / “washing clean” Nazis after the war. Eg. the Austrian far right party FPÖ was founded by an SS member, and I’d be surprised if the AfD didn’t have Nazis in its family tree as well.
People who support fascism can’t be rehabilitated, except for a tiny minority.
But that’s the thing: Nazis weren’t really even displaced, and many kept their jobs in eg. the judiciary because they were seen as indispensable. The failure of denazification was on display especially egregiously in Austria, where you’d have people openly wearing Nazi uniforms years after the war, and they concoted the idea that they were all just unwilling victims of Nazism instead of enthusiastic participants.
For all the issues with Rowling, her allusions to Nazis in Harry Potter was fairly good. People in those stories said they were forced to do evil using a charm, and it made it almost impossible to identify “real” Nazis and the ones who “didn’t know better” or “couldn’t stop it.” The same is true for Nazis in real life. The people will say they didn’t know or just kept their heads down to avoid trouble, but how do you know if they’re telling the truth?
The answer is, you can’t. You can be generous and just let them all go free (and bring Nazism back later) or be aggressive and root out the problem.
I have no idea if this is on purpose, but it’s made pretty clear how to solve the issue in the first place, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t agree with it. She has obvious “former Nazis” doing Nazi things in the open, but then no one does anything to stop them. How much simpler would the story have been if they had just killed the Nazis?
Yeah, the US took in a bunch of Nazis, too, and we put them to work in research labs and our space program. I guess complicity in the slaughter of millions wasn’t a deal-breaker for our government at the time, so long as they could help get us to the moon.
One of the mistakes Germans (+ occupying forces) and the Austrians made after WW II was pardoning / “washing clean” Nazis after the war. Eg. the Austrian far right party FPÖ was founded by an SS member, and I’d be surprised if the AfD didn’t have Nazis in its family tree as well.
People who support fascism can’t be rehabilitated, except for a tiny minority.
We had the same problem after the civil war.
The slavers were kept out of power for 10 years, with excellent results.
Then political priorities shifted and they were allowed back into power.
Cue the KKK, Jim Crow, and the resumption of ‘Southern Culture’ (ie evil racial brutality).
The nazis were largely displaced for decades, the slaver class wasn’t, and it destroyed America.
But that’s the thing: Nazis weren’t really even displaced, and many kept their jobs in eg. the judiciary because they were seen as indispensable. The failure of denazification was on display especially egregiously in Austria, where you’d have people openly wearing Nazi uniforms years after the war, and they concoted the idea that they were all just unwilling victims of Nazism instead of enthusiastic participants.
For all the issues with Rowling, her allusions to Nazis in Harry Potter was fairly good. People in those stories said they were forced to do evil using a charm, and it made it almost impossible to identify “real” Nazis and the ones who “didn’t know better” or “couldn’t stop it.” The same is true for Nazis in real life. The people will say they didn’t know or just kept their heads down to avoid trouble, but how do you know if they’re telling the truth?
The answer is, you can’t. You can be generous and just let them all go free (and bring Nazism back later) or be aggressive and root out the problem.
I have no idea if this is on purpose, but it’s made pretty clear how to solve the issue in the first place, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t agree with it. She has obvious “former Nazis” doing Nazi things in the open, but then no one does anything to stop them. How much simpler would the story have been if they had just killed the Nazis?
Yeah, the US took in a bunch of Nazis, too, and we put them to work in research labs and our space program. I guess complicity in the slaughter of millions wasn’t a deal-breaker for our government at the time, so long as they could help get us to the moon.