Flynn’s fatuity

I have read many books about the extermination of the Jews by the Nazi regime. I have tried to put myself in the place of American observers, German (and German Jewish) citizens of Germany, and citizens of the countries that Hitler conquered. To take just a few examples in random order, I think of:

• William Shirer, Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Corresondent, 1934-1941

• Rudolf Vrba, I Escaped From Auschwitz (a/k/a I Cannot Forgive)

• Jonathan Freedland, The Escape Artist (on Vrba)

• Erik Larson, In the Garden of Beasts

• Andrew Nagorski, Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power

• Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945

• Saul Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews (volume 2 here)

• Rebecca Donner, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days

• Jan Karski, Story of a Secret State: My Report To the World

• Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth About Hitler’s Final Solution

I have written about several of these books on Power Line over the years. The books make you ask what you would have seen, what you would have thought, what you would have done. In one post I quoted ten-time NBA all-star Ray Allen, who followed up his interest in the Holocaust with a visit to the house of a Polish family that hid Jews from the Nazis in a small space under the floor. Allen wrote:

When the Skoczylas family was risking their own lives to hide people they barely knew, they weren’t doing it because they practiced the same religion or were the same race. They did it because they were decent, courageous human beings. They were the same as those people crouched in a hole. And they knew that those people didn’t deserve what was being done to them.

In “Why I went to Auschwitz,” from which I have quoted, Allen reflected: “I asked myself a really tough question: Would I have done the same?” And again: “Really, would I have done the same?”

General Michael Flynn seems to lack Allen’s humility. I wonder if he has ever read a book on the subject. In a recent Protect Our Children Preserve Our Future rally at Grace Christian Church in Michigan (whole thing here on YouTube and here on Rumble), citing an (unnamed) “very, very astute historian,” General Flynn commented on the compliance of Jewish victims:

Any mother who would be told, “Give me your child. Give me your child. Your baby. And we’re going to separate you. We’re not just going to put you in a club coach car, right, where there’s buffet service. We’re going to stuff you like a sardine into a train.”

And early on, they really didn’t know. They thought that they were being taken out of warzones to be taken care of. Didn’t take long before the word got out, because people started to escape. Some great stories about it. And they started to realize, “hey they’re actually taking you there and they’re doing some really sick things.”

But I’m thinking to myself, ’cause I asked. I asked the guy, the very, very astute historian that was walking myself and a couple others through them. I’m asking him, “so tell me, what were the rules for the guards?” Because there wasn’t many guards. But there were thousands, thousands of people. Maybe they’re members of your congregation. Maybe it’s you. That just said, “Okay, here’s my child,” and get on the train.

Flynn’s comments have been reported all over Israeli and Jewish publications, such as in this Jerusalem Post story. The Auschwitz Museum has responded to the quoted comments on Twitter.

General Flynn has himself explained in response to the Auschwitz Museum that he was drawing an analogy. According to Flynn, it’s not as difficult as the Museum makes it out: “The fact you needed to explain so much shows you don’t understand the point I’m making about what we potentially face today. People should understand these type horrific tragedies could happen again because the sobering reality is that evil exists. And what Hitler and his cohorts did to the Jews and others was evil” — i.e., the mass extermination of the Jews is something like our current political predicament.

The fact you needed to explain so much shows you don’t understand the point I’m making about what we potentially face today. People should understand these type horrific tragedies could happen again because the sobering reality is that evil exists. And what Hitler and his cohorts…

— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) August 13, 2023

Well, no. The Final Solution was a new phenomenon in human history. See, for example, the consideration Lucy Dawidowicz gives to “Jewish Behavior In Crisis and Extremity” in the concluding chapter of The War Against the Jews and that Walter Laqueur gives to “The Jews in Nazi-Occupied Europe” in chapter 5 of The Terrible Secret.

The mass extermination of the Jews is not a metaphor. It is not a precedent for our current challenges in the United States. It is, however, a subject worthy of a lifetime of study and reflection.

“You don’t get to where I got in the military nor the level of National Security Advisor for the United States of America because you’re a dummy, or because you don’t know things,” Flynn assured his audience. Even so, until he provides evidence he has read a book on the subject, Flynn really ought to moderate his arrogance in speaking of the greatest crime in the history of mankind.