Brexit Britain

Adolf Hitler was still alive on the day I was born and I grew up in the world that he left behind.

His rise to power, the conditions that led to it and the way people behaved once he was in power, has been a source of terrible fascination for me in the years since.  

I’ve read a great deal about the period and watched numerous documentaries in which those who lived through it told their stories.

One thing which has increasingly struck me has been the ordinariness of the people who were first taken in by Hitler and of those who went onto commit the most horrendous crimes in his name.

The photograph, for example, shows a group of ordinary looking people.  They are, in fact, members of the support staff at Auschwitz.

But photographs can be misleading. For a more reliable picture of how ordinary people committed the worst kind of atrocities during this period read: ‘Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland’ by Christopher R. Browning. It’s chilling.

What emerges is the important realisation that the horrors of Nazism were perpetrated by people like us.

The fact is, it isn’t because people are bad that bad things happen, at least not the ordinary people, it’s the situation that they find themselves in. 

The important question is – how does such a situation arise?

Hitler first started to gain political momentum in the economic chaos that hit Germany following WWI, a period of hyperinflation where, if you didn’t spend your wages by lunchtime the money was worthless. He did it by offering a simple explanation of why things were so awful – it was a Jewish conspiracy – and a simple solution – get rid of the Jews.

However, the economy began to recover and his popularity faded.

And then the Wall Street crash happened, the German economy took another dive, and there he was again – a charismatic joke figure offering the same simple message and the same simple solution.  He gathered votes and seats in the Reichstag – not enough to gain power but enough to get noticed in the right quarters.

Enter the men in the grey suits (there are always men in grey suits) who saw an opportunity to profit from the situation and helped him to the top job.  The rest is history.

Couldn’t happen here though could it?

Well I hope I’m wrong but here’s a suggestion of what could come to pass in the coming months:

Johnson gets into power, makes an utter balls of everything, a no deal Brexit happens and financial chaos ensues – food kitchens, riots and general mayhem.

Enter Nigel, stage left, backed by the men in grey suits.

“I’ll sort it out,” says Nigel.

And he does.

Want a job?  There are some going at that camp thingy that they’re building down the road.