Adolph Hitler is considered, by most informed people, to be the most vile person of the 20th Century. He earned that rank. As everyone knows, over a period of about 8 intense years, Hitler and his Nazi party systematically annihilated over 6 million Jews from Germany, France, Belgium, and other conquered countries throughout Europe. They also executed more than 2 million other “unwanted” people like gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, Communists, and political dissenters. When World War II ended and the world became fully aware of the horrors of the Third Reich, the repeated promise was “Never Again”.

Unfortunately, that level of hatred and violence focused on annihilating a minority population has happened again, repeatedly. In the early 1970’s, during the Bangladesh War of Independence, the Pakistani government carried out genocide killing of the Hindu population of Bengalis, massacring up to 3 million people. In 1994, members of the Hutu majority of Rwanda murdered over 800,000 of the Tutsi minority in a staggering wave of brutality that began in the capital and, fomented by local officials, washed over the entire country in just 3 months. Presently, in South Sudan, war between 2 ethnic groups is resulting in mass murder, rape, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire villages. There are many other examples, but you get the picture. The lesson of Nazi Germany was not as impactful as we like to think.

America’s hands are far from clean on this subject. One of the most heinous acts in US history was the degradation and decimation of the Native American population to make room for the “superior European white man”. Add to that the multigenerational enslavement of Africans to provide free labor for the South’s critical cotton industry and the enactment and brutal enforcement of decades-long Jim Crow laws to “keep them in their place” and it’s clear that the US can occupy no moral high ground on the subjugation of minority populations.

So, I was researching incidents of ethnic cleansing over the last 70 years (why? who knows.) and struggled to find a common theme. Religion? No. Although there have been more human lives lost throughout history because of religious conflict than all other reasons combined, differences in people’s belief systems were not the basis of all of these tragedies. Race? Once again, no. We love to hate other races, but there were many massacres among people of the same race. Geography? In some cases, man-made borders were involved, but by no means was geography a universal reason.

The unifying theme that I found in all of these horrific actions was “difference”. In every case, the persecuted people were viewed as fundamentally different from their more powerful attackers and those differences made them less valued as human beings. Perhaps most importantly, the majority’s leaders focused on what might be considered normal variants in culture or practices and constantly depicted them as evil and dangerous. History clearly shows that without charismatic leaders regularly denouncing these minorities as “subhuman”,  the final massive displacements, enslavements, or massacres would never have been allowed.

Long before the Nazis filled death camps with Europe’s Jewish population, a carefully staged program of propaganda, ridicule, and isolation turned Germany’s Jews from neighbors and friends into powerless “others” with no connection to German society. The Nazi Party controlled some 7000 newspapers in Germany and they used these outlets to daily attack Jews for causing any and all of society’s ills. These coordinated attacks were Hitler’s first real blitzkrieg and provided the Nazis with the cover to eliminate German citizen’s rights for all Jews. Once the German population viewed Jews as “others”, it was a relatively simple task to move them into ghettoes and then to the camps.

While not always as organized as the Nazi propaganda machine, a consistent message dehumanizing the persecuted emanates from the majority’s leaders prior to heinous actions in every one of these incidents. US history is replete with embarrassing pronouncements from our leaders on the fitness and humanity of Native Americans and African Americans to justify this country’s reprehensible actions. I could fill this essay with statements from Parliament about the “subhuman” Irish as they starved my ancestors and took their land. It was ok, we were different from the English. Not the same – different.

So, what’s the antidote for this poison? First, be aware when the message from a leader or leaders is focused on how a subpopulation is “different” from the rest of us. Second, reject the message fundamentally – focus on our similarities and reject that hate. Third, be active on this issue. It’s ok to say, “I really don’t want to argue any more with conservatives about why the Pentagon doesn’t need more funding or why we need a gas tax.” It’s not alright, however, to permit hate speech to go on around you without challenging the ignorance of the speaker.

The hate is out there right now. It has a dangerous edge. Because of who is sitting in the White House, the alt-right and racists in this country think that their message represents the American people. It doesn’t and they don’t. (I marvel at their level of energy, though. Can you imagine what it must take to hate Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, all of the LBGT community, liberals, experts, the educated, all women who get abortions, and pretty much all women? Wow, the list just goes on and on. Exhausting.)

I don’t expect mass annihilation of any groups in this country, but I am concerned about the slippery slope of restrictions of fundamental rights for subpopulations who have been recently designated as “different”. Anyone who began his campaign for President with a speech talking about “Mexican rapists” and “keeping Muslims out” bears careful watching. So do his flying monkeys.