I arrive with my timed-entry ticket and join the queue. As the line moves forward, we are herded into an elevator and sent to the top floor. The exhibits throughout the museum are both thought-provoking and gut-wrenching.
This was a visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. On a hot summer day, the museum was packed with visitors inching their way through the exhibits that contained photographs and narratives that sent chills down my spine. Hitler’s rise to power seemed strangely familiar.
While the circumstances of pre-Nazi Germany are not the same as today in the US, there are striking similarities. The signing of the Versailles treaty after World War I was viewed by many Germans, especially those on the right, as being grossly unfair. The stock market crash of 1929 threw multitudes of workers into unemployment. Social and political unrest became the norm. Democracy was at risk. Hitler took advantage of this destitution and political unrest to become their savior. In the 1920’s, his political party, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazi) was considered radical and fringe, but by 1932, it was the largest political organization in Germany.
Unable to form a government without the far-right parties, including the Nazi Party, President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded to name Adolf Hitler as chancellor in January of 1933. Those advisors knew Hitler was trying to garner power but they felt they could rein him in. How wrong they were.
Within a month of Hitler becoming chancellor, there was a fire in the parliament building. Hitler quickly seized on this incident to blame the Communists, an opposition party, for arson and to declare a national emergency under which he created a police state that remained in place until 1945. This emergency allowed him to bypass many of the checks and balances that, under normal circumstances, would have restrained the chancellor’s impulses.
To create a following, Hitler espoused racist ideas and white Aryan supremacy. He gave his followers something to hate, to blame their troubles on, and to scapegoat: the Jews. They were falsely and unjustly blamed for the economic woes of the country. While they were clearly the most targeted, there were many other people groups on the hit list, like the Soviets, Poles, Serbs, Slovenes, and especially Roma. Other targeted groups included people with disabilities as well as gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
The members of parliament, who had become the chancellor’s rubber stamp, passed two laws: one stripped citizenship from Jews and the other forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Aryan citizens.
Thus began the round up and deportation of Jewish people as well as other non-Aryans. They first were held in squalid ghettos in the cities and then later shipped to concentration camps. Many were worked to death and others were killed in the gas chambers. At least 13 million people, including over six million Jews, were literally exterminated. The word “genocide” became part of our lexicon.
When I look at the world today, I see a similar situation here in the US. The widening wealth gap and income inequality over the past few decades fuels a far-right coalition that won the White House and the majorities in both chambers of Congress. Anger and fear, provoked by racism, xenophobia, and transphobia, drive this coalition whereby the executive branch scapegoats and targets immigrants for detention, deportation, and rendition to a third country.
On his first day in office this term, the president declared a national emergency at the southern border under the false pretense of the border being overrun by undocumented immigrants bringing fentanyl across the border. (In fact, at the time, border crossings were down and where fentanyl is brought into the US, it is typically by US citizens or by those authorized to cross into the US, not asylum-seeking immigrants.) Presidential orders consolidate executive power while the Republican majority in Congress rubber-stamps the president’s wishes. The administration wants to scrap birthright citizenship and has begun to prioritize the denaturalization of naturalized citizens. The similarities between this administration and the Nazi regime are chilling.
One such congressional rubber-stamping is the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed by the Republican-led Congress at the behest of the president and ceremoniously signed into law on July 4th. One major provision in this law creates additional funding of $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement. Of that amount, $46.5 billion will go for border walls and related infrastructure. In addition to their annual $8.5 billion budget, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will receive $29.85 billion for hiring and training agents as well as facility upgrades and the like, making its budget larger than those of the militaries in every country in the world except the top 15. Together with the $45 billion for more detention centers, ICE’s budget increase is $74.85 billion. Note these additional funds are available until September 30th, 2029.
Unlike other American law enforcement agencies, ICE does not require its employees to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Its training curriculum is not as rigorous and its employment standards are not as high. In fact, ICE agents wear masks and no badges to keep their identities secret. (Currently, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) has introduced a bill to require ICE agents to be maskless and wear ID badges.)
When creating a police state is part of this regime’s equation, they just won the jackpot. Of course, they had help from Congress where all Republicans but 2 in the House and 3 in the Senate voted for this bill. (All Democrats and Independents voted against it.)
Hitler’s Brown Shirts performed a similar function to ICE. It did not bode well for the targeted scapegoats nor for the rest of society. It took a world war to end the atrocities.
Being an immigrant to the US is not a crime. Arriving here illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. Yet, this regime claims to be sending violent criminal immigrants to gulags in El Salvador, to places like war-torn South Sudan (where the immigrants are not from and have never been to), and to prisons and detention camps here in the US, even though most detainees have no criminal convictions. This dragnet is also sweeping up US citizens as well as green card holders. The rights to due process and to an attorney are stripped away. The latest detention camp, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is an inhumane facility in the Everglades that the administration jokes about as if those detainees, people who came to the US to find a better life, are not even human. It is beyond the pale how anyone with any shred of decency can find this humorous. Cruelty is the point.
And this is indeed no laughing matter. People’s lives are at stake. According to the fact-checking website Snopes.com, 72% of detained immigrants do not have any criminal convictions. While 25% do have pending criminal charges but have not been convicted of a crime (which could range from traffic violations or nonviolent crimes to violent crimes), it is important to note that less than 9% have any history of violent crimes. The administration’s assertion that it is detaining only “dangerous criminals” is obviously false.
Many of these detained immigrants have been in this country for decades and are following the proper legal path to stay here. Some of them are being detained when they show up for their required check-ins with the immigration court. Obviously, the immigration system has been politicized for the benefit of those in power and to terrorize all immigrants and naturalized citizens.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to free the captives*, those who were imprisoned unjustly under a cruel and corrupt Roman regime. May we work to free those unjustly and inhumanely treated, whose detentions seem to be for the amusement of this cruel administration. We the People have the power to peacefully stop this cruelty before it escalates into something worse. It only takes 3.5% of the population to turn the tide.
As I left the museum that day after a very sobering experience, I pulled out the “identification card” I had picked up while standing in line to enter the exhibits. Each booklet tells a story of the life of a child during the Holocaust. The one I happen to select tells the story of a child born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1930. Because of the kindness of strangers, she survived the camps and the war and ultimately emigrated to the US. There is hope.
*In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus reads what is essentially his mission statement from the scroll of Isaiah (from Isaiah 61:1-2): “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
NOTE: If you are curious about fascism in the US, Rachel Maddow’s new book Prequel traces American fascism in early to mid-20th century and serves as a shocking reminder that we have been here before. Fascism did not win. And it cannot win now.
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of a Metro station platform in Washington, DC.
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.
Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).
Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice. Click here to learn more.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
This was a visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. On a hot summer day, the museum was packed with visitors inching their way through the exhibits that contained photographs and narratives that sent chills down my spine. Hitler’s rise to power seemed strangely familiar.
While the circumstances of pre-Nazi Germany are not the same as today in the US, there are striking similarities. The signing of the Versailles treaty after World War I was viewed by many Germans, especially those on the right, as being grossly unfair. The stock market crash of 1929 threw multitudes of workers into unemployment. Social and political unrest became the norm. Democracy was at risk. Hitler took advantage of this destitution and political unrest to become their savior. In the 1920’s, his political party, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazi) was considered radical and fringe, but by 1932, it was the largest political organization in Germany.
Unable to form a government without the far-right parties, including the Nazi Party, President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded to name Adolf Hitler as chancellor in January of 1933. Those advisors knew Hitler was trying to garner power but they felt they could rein him in. How wrong they were.
Within a month of Hitler becoming chancellor, there was a fire in the parliament building. Hitler quickly seized on this incident to blame the Communists, an opposition party, for arson and to declare a national emergency under which he created a police state that remained in place until 1945. This emergency allowed him to bypass many of the checks and balances that, under normal circumstances, would have restrained the chancellor’s impulses.
To create a following, Hitler espoused racist ideas and white Aryan supremacy. He gave his followers something to hate, to blame their troubles on, and to scapegoat: the Jews. They were falsely and unjustly blamed for the economic woes of the country. While they were clearly the most targeted, there were many other people groups on the hit list, like the Soviets, Poles, Serbs, Slovenes, and especially Roma. Other targeted groups included people with disabilities as well as gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
The members of parliament, who had become the chancellor’s rubber stamp, passed two laws: one stripped citizenship from Jews and the other forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Aryan citizens.
Thus began the round up and deportation of Jewish people as well as other non-Aryans. They first were held in squalid ghettos in the cities and then later shipped to concentration camps. Many were worked to death and others were killed in the gas chambers. At least 13 million people, including over six million Jews, were literally exterminated. The word “genocide” became part of our lexicon.
When I look at the world today, I see a similar situation here in the US. The widening wealth gap and income inequality over the past few decades fuels a far-right coalition that won the White House and the majorities in both chambers of Congress. Anger and fear, provoked by racism, xenophobia, and transphobia, drive this coalition whereby the executive branch scapegoats and targets immigrants for detention, deportation, and rendition to a third country.
On his first day in office this term, the president declared a national emergency at the southern border under the false pretense of the border being overrun by undocumented immigrants bringing fentanyl across the border. (In fact, at the time, border crossings were down and where fentanyl is brought into the US, it is typically by US citizens or by those authorized to cross into the US, not asylum-seeking immigrants.) Presidential orders consolidate executive power while the Republican majority in Congress rubber-stamps the president’s wishes. The administration wants to scrap birthright citizenship and has begun to prioritize the denaturalization of naturalized citizens. The similarities between this administration and the Nazi regime are chilling.
One such congressional rubber-stamping is the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed by the Republican-led Congress at the behest of the president and ceremoniously signed into law on July 4th. One major provision in this law creates additional funding of $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement. Of that amount, $46.5 billion will go for border walls and related infrastructure. In addition to their annual $8.5 billion budget, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will receive $29.85 billion for hiring and training agents as well as facility upgrades and the like, making its budget larger than those of the militaries in every country in the world except the top 15. Together with the $45 billion for more detention centers, ICE’s budget increase is $74.85 billion. Note these additional funds are available until September 30th, 2029.
Unlike other American law enforcement agencies, ICE does not require its employees to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Its training curriculum is not as rigorous and its employment standards are not as high. In fact, ICE agents wear masks and no badges to keep their identities secret. (Currently, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) has introduced a bill to require ICE agents to be maskless and wear ID badges.)
When creating a police state is part of this regime’s equation, they just won the jackpot. Of course, they had help from Congress where all Republicans but 2 in the House and 3 in the Senate voted for this bill. (All Democrats and Independents voted against it.)
Hitler’s Brown Shirts performed a similar function to ICE. It did not bode well for the targeted scapegoats nor for the rest of society. It took a world war to end the atrocities.
Being an immigrant to the US is not a crime. Arriving here illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. Yet, this regime claims to be sending violent criminal immigrants to gulags in El Salvador, to places like war-torn South Sudan (where the immigrants are not from and have never been to), and to prisons and detention camps here in the US, even though most detainees have no criminal convictions. This dragnet is also sweeping up US citizens as well as green card holders. The rights to due process and to an attorney are stripped away. The latest detention camp, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is an inhumane facility in the Everglades that the administration jokes about as if those detainees, people who came to the US to find a better life, are not even human. It is beyond the pale how anyone with any shred of decency can find this humorous. Cruelty is the point.
And this is indeed no laughing matter. People’s lives are at stake. According to the fact-checking website Snopes.com, 72% of detained immigrants do not have any criminal convictions. While 25% do have pending criminal charges but have not been convicted of a crime (which could range from traffic violations or nonviolent crimes to violent crimes), it is important to note that less than 9% have any history of violent crimes. The administration’s assertion that it is detaining only “dangerous criminals” is obviously false.
Many of these detained immigrants have been in this country for decades and are following the proper legal path to stay here. Some of them are being detained when they show up for their required check-ins with the immigration court. Obviously, the immigration system has been politicized for the benefit of those in power and to terrorize all immigrants and naturalized citizens.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to free the captives*, those who were imprisoned unjustly under a cruel and corrupt Roman regime. May we work to free those unjustly and inhumanely treated, whose detentions seem to be for the amusement of this cruel administration. We the People have the power to peacefully stop this cruelty before it escalates into something worse. It only takes 3.5% of the population to turn the tide.
As I left the museum that day after a very sobering experience, I pulled out the “identification card” I had picked up while standing in line to enter the exhibits. Each booklet tells a story of the life of a child during the Holocaust. The one I happen to select tells the story of a child born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1930. Because of the kindness of strangers, she survived the camps and the war and ultimately emigrated to the US. There is hope.
*In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus reads what is essentially his mission statement from the scroll of Isaiah (from Isaiah 61:1-2): “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
NOTE: If you are curious about fascism in the US, Rachel Maddow’s new book Prequel traces American fascism in early to mid-20th century and serves as a shocking reminder that we have been here before. Fascism did not win. And it cannot win now.
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of a Metro station platform in Washington, DC.
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.
Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).
Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice. Click here to learn more.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
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