A Canadian View on the US: Those Who Do Not Learn From History Are Doomed to Repeat It!

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By Jo-Ann “Jo D NL” Duke

Recently I was scrolling through Twitter, looking at all the new tweets to see if there was anything interesting. Boy, was there ever. I ran across a tweet from the Auschwitz Memorial. It was remembering the sad events of August 4, 1944. If you don’t already know, this was the day that Anne Frank’s family were arrested, as well as the four other people who were hiding with them in the secret annex on Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. The whole group were arrested; as well, so were their helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler. Just a month later on September 3, 1944, the Frank family was deported to Auschwitz.

The reason they were sent to this concentration camp, where all but one person from the group of 8 people who had been hidden for two years perished either in the ovens or through the deplorable conditions in the camp; the reason was because they were Jewish, and thanks to Hitler and his hate speech, they were deemed to be second class, and not to have the rights of other people, the ones who more closely fit his Aryan ideal. The only survivor was Anne’s father, who was one of the people saved when the Auschwitz camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers in January 1945. It was Anne’s father who later published her diary.

I am sure that most everyone has read the diary at some point in their lives. For me, the impact was tremendous, it has stayed with me since the day I read it in school, especially since we had to do a book report about the diary. Here I was 15 years old, and reading the private thoughts of a young girl who had to live in secrecy for two years, hidden away in a house where they could only move around at night, so that no one would be able to figure out that there were people living upstairs, and report them to the Nazis. This girl I was reading about was my age, and I couldn’t imagine having to live like that. I looked at my life, and how open and free my friends and I could be. I think it was really the first time that I understood just how cruel people in this world could be. Imagine hating someone just because they were different from you.

This lesson has stuck me since then, through all these years, and honestly, I believe that thanks to having read this book, that it has helped me to become a better person, especially to anyone that people might consider to be different. To me, honestly, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, the color of your skin, your religion, who you love, nothing. I judge people on their character, and try to treat them as I would want to be treated; or if my parents were still alive, how I would want them to be treated. Honestly, isn’t that how we should judge each other, based on the people we are, not anything else.

However, as I have gotten older, and I hope a little or a lot wiser, sadly, I know this is not true. Everywhere you look, people are fighting over one thing or another, just because they aren’t exactly the same. Well, to be honest, I don’t think I would like living in a world, where we were basically clones of each other; just think about it, how boring would that be? No differences, no individuality, just everything identical. To me that would be a nightmare. It’s now been seventy five years since the concentration camps, let’s be honest here, the death camps were liberated. The pictures I have seen of the survivors as they were rescued, they still haunt me to this day. Seeing people who looked like living skeletons with skin stretched across their bones; marked with an idea number like cattle. Those are pictures if you have seen them, they will stay with you forever. It might sound strange, but this is a good thing, because it should make us determined to see that this never happens again, not even on a small scale.

You might wonder why I am writing this now, because some would say that nothing like that happens anymore. Is this true though? We still see all the wars around the war that are caused because of differences between the two sides. What makes being different bad? This might sound simplistic, but it’s the heart of the matter. Unfortunately, right now, around the world, we are seeing proof of systemic racism nearly everywhere, and yes, that includes Canada with its issue of how our indigenous people have been treated for many generations. I would never claim that Canada is perfect, because no person or country can be. I would hope that every country and their leaders would try to make sure that the divides caused by this sometimes hidden but often overt racism would try to heal these open wounds, and bring their countries together, and not cause even further division. Surely if someone had been chosen to lead a country, wouldn’t they try to be the person to make their country better and more united.

Sadly, seeing the events that are unfolding in the United States, especially under the Trump administration, I am not seeing this happen. Everyday it seems like the division within its borders grows even deeper. The saddest thing is that their Commander-in-Chief doesn’t seem to care; yes, he will say what he thinks people want to hear, but listening to him, there is never any feeling behind what he is saying. Even when he talks about children dying senselessly in shootings, the almost 160,000 American citizens who have died from Covid-19 already, and that’s not counting how many more will die before there is a vaccine that is both safe and will work to end the threat of the virus.

Looking at the situation with an outside view, it is both frightening and heartbreaking to see the country getting to point that if the president’s inactions on the pandemic, and his trying to seem like he is the law and order president as he calls himself; by him sending unmarked federal agents into some of the US’s largest to restore order as he has proclaimed himself to be. One of the most disturbing things to me especially, is seeing them snatching people off the street, and taking them away without them doing so in the manner that police officers would normally arrest people, and following proper legal procedures.

People might argue with me on this, but to me, it smacks too much of how Hitler’s SS and the Nazis snatched Jews off the streets, just because they were Jewish. Trump’s forces are grabbing protestors who are protesting against systemic racism in the US, which is a true and real problem. My fear is that everyday as I watch the news, seeing these issues all over, is that the United States of America seems to be turning into a police state, and Trump is the authoritarian leader, who believes that he has absolute control, and can do as he likes, that no one can tell him any difference. If you look back at the rise of Hitler and his party, unfortunately, I believe that you will see many similarities. Can the US be saved from such a fate? I really believe it can, and I hope that it does happen that the country can save itself before it gets to the point of no return.

Please don’t let this happen again. The world needs to do better, and we need to help each other, not tear each other apart. We, the world need to learn this, and make sure it never happens again. One person can start the change, and it will grow. Let peace and love win, not war and hate. Whatever religious deity you believe in, I can’t believe that they would want to see the world ravaged like this again.

As I said in the beginning, those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Well, that’s my take so I am signing off now, from Canada, and I am sincerely wishing all of my American friends the best, those both old and new, and much love to all of you.

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