If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Sun TZU

One of the oldest, most accepted and established rules of warfare is to know your enemy.

No Military Commander in their right mind would enter battle without knowing everything humanly possible about the enemy he would face  – Common sense requires it.

Consequently, when I was selected to go into the field in Eastern Europe, one of the things I was immediately educated on was the history, tactics, and ideology associated with Marxism and Soviet domination.

A few years later I was given a 2-and-a-half-year assignment to become part of and infiltrate a NEO-NAZI Cell actively recruiting at a University near the city of Giessen, Germany.  – Before actually putting myself in a situation to be recruited, I spent 6-months learning everything I could about Natianalsocialism.

If I am convinced of anything it is  – “The only way to know if you still believe the things, you think you believe, is to know what the other fool believes, and understand why he believes it.”

I listened to EVERY recording of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and Hesse speeches available at the Universitätsbibliothek (University Library). I read every document and executive orders issued by the NSDAP.  – Now that shit will give you nightmares if you let it.

Then, I asked “Omi” – My adopted grandmother.

Omi bore a tattoo on her left forearm – just a series of numbers and the words – “Nur für Offiziere” – and Yes, it means EXACTLY what you think it does.

Omi spent her years after KZ Oświęcim (Auschwitz -Birkenau) as a member of Etzel, an unusually violent offshoot branch of Irgun who busied themselves killing British occupation troops. Irgun was a hardcore right-wing Israeli resistance group fighting for Israeli independence. They were folded into Haganah and eventually Mossad.  They were involved in the Acre prison break and the King David Hotel bombing in 1949. They were known for killing enemy (British) Soldiers with impunity.

Omi wore her KZ Tattoo like her battle scars with pride; she had been wounded ambushing an enemy patrol in Palestine in ‘48. Reportedly Omi personally killed two enemy soldiers, one with a knife, and had been decorated by Menachem Begin himself.

My Omi had Ovaries, of this there can be no question, if she were still here, I think she could probably still outshoot me and likely still kick my ass. – I loved that old girl.

Omi’s words gave me a strange balance on the topic of Nationalsocialism and the fools who even today embraced it.  She somehow had empathy for the Germans who “fell prey to the Nationalsocialist lie.”  People who were smarter, yet still they fell into line. She described them as “not bad people”  – just “immunized against the truth.” She somehow held no animosity toward her fellow Germans who stood by and let her be taken to the KZ.

Every American has been exposed to the Diary of Anne Frank and told what an example of hope and faith her words are.  Nonsense like that seriously lessens the reality of the period. Ask 100 people what Anne’s last entry was…  and 99% of the ones who think they know, will tell you she wrote – “now is the time for hope” or something equally cheesy.

To have even an inkling of what it was like under Nationalsocialism, you need to know the reality of her last words.

Her last entry was –

“Al was het maar er waren geen andere mensen in de wereld”
(If only there were no other people in the world.”)

Anne was in absolute despair when SS Sturmtruppen came for her – Omi’s stories of the KZ give me a terrifying picture of what Anne Frank experience before her death. My own experience as the unwilling guest of the KGB in 87-88 makes it hard for me to cope with the thought of a child in that situation.

Omi was a typical old Jewish grandmother, she always had a lesson to teach me, and one of her most adamant lessons was – OPEN YOUR EYES – see the signs, it was obvious where the NAZIs were going – but no one cared.

She liked to cite the prophet Amos – “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

She would say: “Be one of the prophets – Know the past and the future is clear.”

Omi usually pointed out the major steppingstones from the NAZI Leader’s economic and diplomatic successes to the horror of the Holocaust.

“KNOW THE ENEMY! KNOW THE SIGNS!“  was her mantra.

An absurd thing for a grandmother to teach her young progeny? – Maybe, but then again…
Omi had seen the worst humanity had to offer… up close and personal – she was teaching me to stand against it.

On that point       

In Feb of 1933, the was a terrorist an attack on the German Congress building – The Reichstag. It was a major political issue that decided who was with the Fuhrer and who was not and set the stage for the Holocaust.

As a child, I learned about it as the Reichstagesbrand – (The Congress fire) in primary school. Hitler sent a Unit of the “Sicherheitsabteilung,”  Hitler’s personal security force, to clandestinely set the building on fire.  Hitler and the Nationalsocialist publicly blamed their main advisory – the Socialists; it was his first attempt at establishing a Scapegoat.

He didn’t have success on the scapegoat front until he landed on Jews as vermin who were invading and overrunning the “Unserrer Land” – (Our Country).  Hitler hated Jews after his WW1 experiences, but he hadn’t come to the realization that they were his perfect boogeyman yet.  Levitical cleanliness laws meant Jews understand that if they dump their latrines upstream – it makes the lentils taste funny.  These laws have prevented most historical pestilence from infecting Jewish communities.

Consequently, Jews were already blamed historically for the Black Plague and several other pestilence and disasters including the Crucifixion of the NAZI party’s official God – Jesus. Hitler started with Socialists, Disabled people, mentally slow or deficient people, Gays, liberals, Socialists, Zigeuner (Gypsies), and refugee immigrants before he landed on the perfect scapegoat – Jews.

In the ensuing propaganda blast, the Nation’s top executive, president/Chancellor, presented a continuous barrage of statements and speeches that criminalized anyone with any Socialist tendencies blaming them for the attack and suspending due process and legal rights for anyone accused of being a Socialist.

The result of this legislation was the suspension of all required Due Process for all of those outside the NSDAP and was at the discretion of the Chancellor (President).

Suspending due process and filling the judiciary with NAZI judges led to the overwhelming acceptance of the Enabling Act just a few months later.

” The Enabling Act” became the cornerstone of Hitler’s dictatorship and established the concept as law that..  if the Executive (President/Chancellor) does it …  it can’t be illegal since he is the top Law Officer in the Reich.

As an extension of this legislation,,  The Chief  Executive was granted complete and absolute power by the democratic process.

Try to remember NAZI Germany not only had the most liberal gun laws in civilized history…  it was a pure Greek style democracy with a 100% unregulated free market economy.

The NSDAP outlawed people because they weren’t German enough – they were not like us – they look or speak funny – tye have a weird religion – they’re not even Christian!!!! – And to the eternal shame of the German people…  the majority were so engrossed in the  “Make Germany Great again” and “Germany first” movement that they accepted Nationalsocialsim.

“I’ll make us strong again
You’ll sleep safely in your beds
I’ll rain down hell upon those dirty mongrels’ heads
Your pantries will be full
And your faith will be inspired
And the blood of all your children
Is all that I require”
All that I require”

Chorus from “All that I require” Radney Foster

Just a thought – Gid.