Jennifer ScheurleVerified account

I grew up with him being a role model of kindness, humility, understanding and compassion. Our family looked up to him. He was a good man who cared about others, their happiness and success. He was not a judgemental person. When I was old enough, we started talking about the war

He was excellent at educating me about the nuances of growing up in Germany at the time he did. Germans know these things deep within our bones... we learn about it in school, but his perspective was invaluable because it was real and tangible.

He grew up as part of the Hitler youth. Just like about everybody at the time. It was what you were pushed to do and opting out of it was difficult and potentially dangerous. When you grow up as a child in that environment though, it’s not easy to understand.

When he told me about it, it was unthinkable for me from what we know now. I couldn’t understand how someone like him would be able to align with Nazi ideology. I remember what he told me next so vividly, it will be burned into my consciousness forever.

There was this strong, accomplished, grown man, and he cried. He talked to me about how his entire life - he lived to 95 years - he lived with the regret of his complicity. He sat there and while he himself never directly hurt anybody, the regret followed him to his grave.

He was imprisoned very early in the war and freed only weeks before the war officially ended. He was lucky to survive. But he carried a burden with him that I don’t wish upon anybody: the regret of being complicit in something he didn’t even understand the consequences of then.

Propaganda works like this. It’s pushing the boundaries of what we consider normal, slowly and steadily. It crawls up on you, sits under all of our skin until we forget what’s right. To believe my grandfather had a chance of escaping it is being blind to how propaganda functions.

He carried it with him forever without a chance of fixing what had happened to him, the people around him and the country he loved. I will never forget the pain on his face. There is no coming back from it, remember this.

The travel ban, children in prisons, fake news, calling immigrants criminals and animals... this is the language of propaganda. You may believe it’s not the same as it was then but let me tell you it is. The regret will haunt our lives as it did my grandfather’s.

There is no friendly debate when it comes to this. You *can’t* hide behind it. The only way is to #resist with all of our options available. Unless we want to have to look our grandchildren in the eyes and confess that we were complicit, just like my grandfather.