Of Politics & Books: My Review of “The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz” by Jeremy Dronfield
After enrolling in college I lost my joy for reading. I graduated college and entered the field of electoral politics. Now for the first time in years, I am ready to pick up books and enjoy them again.
The first book I read was The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield. I have to say this book surpassed my expectations, this was a well told tale that transported me to me all together to a different time period. As a little bit of background about myself, I’ve been studying the holocaust for years trying to make sense of the events that transpired leading to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany. I probably picked up my first book about the Holocaust when I was in third grade. Though it would be sometime before I had a deeper understanding of what happened here I was just, intrigued. My nine-year-old brain never understood why or how humans could stoop to such a level of hatred for their fellow humans. This human behavior still intrigues me as an adult. I’ve spent the last few years working on Democratic campaigns across the U.S. Most recently I ran a field program in La Crosse, WI helped Joe Biden flip Wisconsin blue and ultimately win the 2020 US Presidential Election.
For the last four years U.S political pundits have compared President Donald J. Trump to Adolf Hitler. People have fearfully shared claims and comparisons of the modern day Republican Party and their veer towards right-wing extremism to the rise of the Nazi Party on social media. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to compare anything to the level of degeneration and brutality of what took place in Nazi Concentration Camps. Frankly I think it’s downright rude to make that claim; BUT before you get angry I will say that I firmly believe that the slope downward into fascism is a very slippery one. In this book the number one thing I noticed is level of detail that the author put into explaining the major political events that occurred surrounding the decline of society into Nazi Fascism. It describes in detail the early arrest and internment of political enemies. What was their crime? Being Democratic Socialists, Communists, high-ranking elected officials and low level detractors. In 24-hour window from October 6 to October 7, 2020 the President of the United States “…twice amplified his supporters’ criticisms…wondered aloud why his rivals, like President Barack Obama, Democratic nominee Joe Biden and former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton hadn’t been imprisoned for launching a “coup” against his administration.” (1) There are many claims disputed on what was said or if it was actually said. According to Dronfield, that’s how it began after Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938. (2) The same air of social upheaval surrounding the plebiscite, the public vote for Austrian independence could be witnessed just months ago across the US. To be clear: Austrian citizens were to be voting on wether to allow their annexation into Nazi Germany. You can imagine that tensions were running high among the fears and feelings of the Austrian people. The same attitude of neighbors and family turning against each other began probably during the Obama presidency and ended up boiling over during the 2016 elections. It continues even now, my own father is a sexist, racist and homophobic piece of trash that blindly votes Republican. He follows the conspiracies and thinks the sun shines out of Donald Trumps’ ass. So you can imagine what he thinks about his daughter working professionally in progressive politics. He also doesn’t think women should vote or be involved in politics, so there’s that. Do I think that my own father is capable of turning me in to the authorities as a political enemy? Absolutely. Do I think that my name and the names of my co-workers that also work for Democrats are on a list somewhere? Absolutely. Would I probably be amongst the first to be arrested in a fascist take over? Absolutely.
The Kleinmann family was turned in to the SS by people that their neighbors. It’s scary to think about what could and could not happen were the US to take a drastic decline into fascism like much of Europe experienced from 1930–1947. We can scarcely imagine what it was like to experience such persecution and brutality by our government. What’s even worse is that in the epilogue of this book after Fritz and Gustav Kleinmann are released and return to Vienna after 7 years. The very neighbors that turned them in are shocked to find that Fritz won’t talk to them. You know, after turning them into the SS, surviving torture, degradation, the loss of their entire family, starvation and brutal treatment at the hands of the Nazis.
Now that the 2020 election is over there are many people calling for peace and everyone to get along. I can tell you, from what I see, America is far from it. I can tell you that on my side, we are not ready to forgive the people that voted for the man that separated families at the border. We are not ready to forgive the people that voted for the man that couldn’t even apologize for bragging about sexual assault, even if it happened 14 years ago. We are not ready to forgive the people that voted for a man after he cruelly mocked a disabled reporter. We are not ready to forgive the people that voted for the man that drove such decisiveness and hatred toward the muslim and latino community. We not ready to forgive the people that voted for the man that repeatedly degraded black people and women from the oval office. And we are damn sure not ready to forgive the people that voted for the con-artist that is trying daily to usurp the voters of this nation by filing frivolous lawsuit after lawsuit. You might say, “but it was just a vote…..,” no it’s not “just a vote,” it has consequences, you’re just too privileged to have to experience them. And they might not be consequences for you but more than likely the black, latino, indigenous, LGBT and women will be feeling those consequences. The Jews paid with their blood for the vote that their neighbors cast. And then they pretended that they deserved the forgivness of the Jewish survivors, whose families died in gas chambers.
I urge my friends and neighbors to always remember the lessons that history has taught us. We know it’s a slippery slope into fascism, if you need a reminder of that I encourage you to pick up The Boy Who Followed His Father to Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield. You won’t regret, but beware, the events that transpired in this book are not for the faint at heart. All-in-all I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, I hope you’ll learn from it just as I have. I picked it up for $17.99 at Barnes and Nobles and it was worth it. But please take the opportunity to support small and family-owned book stores in your area. Show used books some love!
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- Cheney, K. (2020, October 07). ‘Where are all of the arrests?’: Trump demands Barr lock up his foes. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/07/trump-demands-barr-arrest-foes-427389
- History.com Editors. (2010, February 09). Germany Annexes Austria. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-annexes-austria
