Slice of Life

Are we doomed by not knowing history?

As a middle school student, I recall disliking history class. My instructor was dry as old corn husks and made history just as exciting. What was the point? All those people were dead anyway. I studied the textbook trying to keep my eyes open to read enough to say I had completed the assignment, absorbing little. High school changed that for me, I learned to love history. The teacher made a difference.

Studying the Second World War in high school was fascinating. Our teacher engaged us by crawling under desks to demonstrate the risks of those trying to escape tyranny. Closing all the blinds and turning off lights he lulled us into a relaxed state making us unprepared for the sharp whack of a board on the desk that startled us and made us think of how it felt to have lived with bombs going off and gunshots firing around you. He had our attention. He made history come alive.

During this course I had to write a paper on an aspect of World War II. Since my grandfather had been in Germany during the war, I went to him for a first-hand perspective. My grandfather was a quiet man. He preferred to come home from his work as a painter on a military base, eat dinner and relax with a cold beer and a good novel. I was very excited about him sharing some inside story to write about. When I asked him, he was not enthusiastic. He actually told me no, not something he ever wanted to talk about. But 16-year-old me was not to be deterred.

After a week of checking in to see if he’d changed his mind, I finally got him to budge. He walked to his room, came back with a shoebox, and dropped it on the table in front of me. “Fine,” he said. “This might be what you are looking for. And what I want to forget.”

Opening the box I found a few medals from his service, his dog tags and photos. Horrid photos. Photos of bodies that had been placed naked and without dignity in mass graves. Photos of a mountain of shoes. Photos of starved people who were so thin it was a miracle they could stand. “I wasn’t supposed to take those pictures,” my grandfather said. “But I didn’t think anyone would ever believe what I saw. I took them and I kept them, because I don’t want people to ever forget what happened.” I never realized until then that my grandfather had been one of the Americans who participated in liberating German death camps. From that day to this one, he holds a special place in my heart, along with all the military and civilians who had to face the cruelty of war and depravation of mankind.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Is credited first to Spanish philosopher George Santayana, 1905. Many statesmen have utilized versions of this quote since then. Winston Churchill, in 1948, said in a speech, (that) “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” This speech was made just a few short years after the end of World War II.

In 1934 Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin launched the Great Purge, also known as the “Great Terror” in what was then the USSR. Over the next two years Stalin eliminated more than 750,000 people and sent over a million more to labor camps for the crime of dissenting from the Communist party. Stalin utilized intimidation and threats and mass murder to maintain control of the country creating a bloody and confusing point in the history of the USSR.

Likewise, Hitler utilized a purge to maintain control over the Nazi party when on June 30, 1934, he ordered the murder of those who opposed him in the Party in what was to become known as the Night of the Long Knives. He then went on to purge the country of Jewish people, Gypsies, Poles, Serbs, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many others who he deemed unworthy or in opposition to his plans. Over six million were murdered. This is the Holocaust, which created the death camps, one of which my grandfather had the misfortune of seeing.

Just a few days ago, on March 16, 2022, Vladimir Putin said he will “cleanse Russia of the scum and traitors,” stating he is “convinced this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to meet any challenge.” As Putin prepares his nation to purge itself of the “Bastards and Traitors” I am left to wonder who will define who is which? And will his purge stop at the borders of Russia?

As a once reluctant and then engaged student of history, I hope the skin crawls at the back of the necks on all of us to see this part of history repeating itself. Many lives were shattered, many countries destroyed and, in the end, for Stalin and for Hitler, two among many, the purging and murder, did not pay off for them. When politicians begin to despise the citizens and see them as baskets of deplorables rather than the voters they were elected to serve, the people need to step up and pay attention. It would appear, historically speaking, Putin is ready to follow a road laid before him that has left destruction and a bloody trail behind. I ask, have we learned yet from history? Or are we doomed to repeat it?

Chelle is a recovering social worker who currently works as a licensed massage therapist at Cherry Creek Myotherapy. She moved to Montana with her husband David and two pups, Lucas and Turner, where they seek “the quiet life” amid new adventures.