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Feb. 10, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: The cartoon of Trump “goose stepping” across the cover of The New Yorker magazine was a scary wake up call to the direction Trump and his MAGAts (short for MAGA cult) have been heading. Perhaps many of the MAGAts are too young to understand the horrors of World War II and why we fought. My Dad nearly lost his life from wounds he acquired on the front in France. By the time he recovered, the Allies were halfway across Germany.
As the head of his unit, they liberated one of the smaller concentration camps. The human skeletons in their striped clothing – many too weak to leave their bunks – were a horrific shock to this young lieutenant from Cleveland, Ohio. Many years later we were camped in Munich a short distance from Dachau ‒ one of the most infamous camps in history. My Dad had tears in his eyes as he told us that we should experience this place, but he just couldn’t take us. The memories were still too powerful even after 20-plus years.
A few years later, as a student in a German University, I visited Dachau. It was a Museum of Horrors ‒ not easily forgotten. It wasn’t enough that the fascist Nazis removed the gold fillings from the teeth of the millions of victims they murdered in the gas chambers, there were also a few lamps on display whose lampshades were literally made from human skin Many might think that could never happen here. Yet three people died in Charlottesville in the white nationalist rally in 2017. And five others died in the seditionist attack on the capitol. Cult members will follow their “fuhrer” (leader) even to their deaths. They hide behind their flags ‒ with which they declare their “patriotism.” But those who support the “fascist message” of Trump are no patriots. They are fascists in patriot’s clothing. Fascism has no place in our country. Trump and his MAGAts are a threat to our country, our constitution and our future as a democratic republic. They cannot win; they will not win. They must not win. BETH HOUSER Lexington
