There's Something Happening Here

What it is...is all too clear.

A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times book review reviewed a book which compared Hitler and Stalin in an attempt to figure out who was "worse." It was strongly implied, although never exactly stated in so many words, that Stalin was "worse" than Hitler. There were lines like, "The Germans [after Hitler betrayed the non-aggression pact and sent his troops into the USSR] were greeted as liberators by the Russians." No mention of the fact that that lasted exactly as long as it took the SS to start stringing up the hated Slavs, whom they intended to RACIALLY EXTERMINATE AS SOON AS THEY WERE DONE WITH THE JEWS, GYPSIES AND GAYS.

I was very disturbed by this, but I ingored it. Until today, when I read a letter written in response to the review. After carefully stating that, of course, such comparisons are inappropriate because "evil is absolute," the letter-writer went on to state that:

"The Communists in Russia...pursued the aim of the victory of the proletariat. As this proletariat did not exist in the Russia of that time, it had to be created. This was done by the elimination of the aristocracy, the upper middle class and the...kulaks. The consequence was destruction, deportations and death of unimaginable proportions.

"On the other hand, Hitler in Germany did not touch the ruling classes. He tried to co-opt them, but left alone those who did not openly complain about the regime or work against it. Members of the aristocracy and the upper and working classes lived quite unmolested in Nazi Germany unless they opposed the regime or were Jews, Gypsies or homosexuals."

Oh, well I'm sure glad we got that cleared up! Okay then! Hitler left the rich people alone--unless they were, y'know, Jews--so everything's fine.

First of all, what's bad about Stalin is not EVEN that he turned rich people out of their estates. That does not even come close to what was bad about that insane, power-mongering maniac whose ridiculous bungling of collectivization caused tens of millions of deaths and who personally ordered tens of thousands of his countrymen to be individually dragged out of their homes and shot because he (Stalin) was clinically paranoid.

But second of all, none of it--none of it--comes close to the RACIAL EXTERMINATION openly practiced by Adolf Hitler. Does anybody remember the DEATH CAMPS, whose SOLE PURPOSE was to gas people? Does anybody realize that after Stalin died, tens of thousands of former prisoners returned home, but in the concentration camps, the killing ONLY STOPPED BECAUSE THE ALLIES CAME AND SHUT THEM DOWN? Does anybody grasp the difference between being gulaged because somebody ratted you out for some made-up reason, and being PUT IN A CATTLE CAR AND TAKEN TO AN EXTERMINATION CAMP BECAUSE YOU ARE A JEW? Has anybody gone to the Holocaust memorial and looked at the children's shoes? Hitler had CHILDREN MURDERED. Deliberately. They were not spared from the camps. YES, HITLER IS FUCKING WORSE THAN STALIN. Jesus Christ.

Don't tell me his body count was smaller--it was more deliberate. Don't tell me he left the rich people alone so that makes it all right--fuck you. Don't tell me whatever you think you can try and tell me to make it look like "communism was worse," which is nothing but a code for "fascism is okay." Hitler was about three things: invasion, torture and extermination. And in that time, the United States was not confused. It reached right out and joined hands with the Soviet Union to stop him. To the people living in that time, the lesser of the two evils was VERY clear.

Lest we forget.