Book: Opperman family

It is a pity that the simplest things are the most difficult to understand. He is a German doctor, a German scientist; but there is no German medicine or Jewish medicine, there is science, and nothing else.

Many people showed indifference to public life. They believed in the deceptive calm of everyday life, in the artificial merriment of the festivities and manifestations that the “browns” arranged in abundance to drown out the blatant poverty of the peasants and workers, the horrors of concentration and labor camps. In addition, those who took the place of the expelled talented people, and those who ate scraps from the table of the new rulers, created the illusion of a new prosperity. The majority of the population, of course, could not be deceived: there were more indignant than satisfied. At the sight of the marching detachments of landsknechts, the dissatisfied hid in the doorways, just to avoid the obligatory greeting. They bit their lips until they bled when they heard the vile song that "the world is only good when you put a knife in the throat of a Jew." But no one dared to open his mouth: for an objectionable word, they were brought to trial.

Lies and violence went hand in hand. The "browns" abolished the principles that since the French Revolution have been the basis of the social life and culture of the peoples. They re-introduced slavery under the guise of "voluntary labor service." They imprisoned their opponents, kept them worse than animals, subjected them to torture and called it "physical training." They burned swastikas on their bodies, forced them to urinate on each other, plucked grass with their mouths, led them in buffoon processions through the streets and called it "education in the spirit of national identity." The commandment "Thou shalt not kill" was abolished. Political assassination was extolled as a heroic deed, the Fuehrer called the murderers - precisely because they were murderers - his brothers; memorial plaques were erected to the murderers, the dead were thrown out of the graves; one murderer - precisely because he was a murderer - was elevated to the rank of police president. During the first three months of fascist domination in the country, there were five hundred and ninety-three murders with impunity - more than in the entire previous decade. This figure includes only registered, documented murders. And the number of those executed in the first months of fascist domination was greater than in the previous fifteen years.

And meanwhile, the fog of lies enveloped Germany more and more densely. Hermetically isolated from the rest of the world, the country was given over to the power of lies, which the Nazis spewed out day after day, repeating it millions of times in the press and on the radio. For this purpose, they created a special ministry. Using all the means of modern technology, the fascists inspired the starving that they were full, the oppressed that they were free, those who were threatened by the growing indignation of the whole world, that the entire globe envied their power and greatness. Germany was preparing for war. Training was conducted in the country and outside the country, openly violating existing treaties. The purpose of life is death on the battlefield, the fascist leaders preached. War is the highest destiny of the nation, the loudspeakers proclaimed, all the free time of the youth was filled with military drill.