ONE OF OURS, ALL OF YOURS

 

For several days now there has been a justified controversy over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s public appearance speaking from a podium with the slogan “one of ours, all of yours” emblazoned on it. Most people with any knowledge of history at all know, somewhere at the back of their minds, that the phrase is somehow linked to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, but most are not sure how.

MAGA Republicans have tried to give it a positive spin, of course, employing a broad range of fatuous arguments that completely ignore the nefarious nature of the slogan. Some have said, for instance, that any comparison of the slogan to Nazism is ludicrous, that it’s just a phrase about “solidarity”. Others have even claimed that it’s fake news, that the sign was AI and never really existed. All such claims are, clearly, nonsense, and an insult to our intelligence. We saw the inscription on the podium in pictures from all major news sources, and serious photographic repositories like Getty Images and Alamy also have pictures in their files of Noem speaking from the lectern with the slogan emblazoned on it.

It is quite probable that Kristi Noem actually had no knowledge of the origin of the phrase. She probably just liked the ruthless, Wild West sound of it, since she has repeatedly indicated that if anybody lays a finger on one of her ICE agents, all bets are off—never mind the rule of law. With this, I’m not trying to excuse Noem or the slogan. On the contrary, what I’m saying is that she is so monumentally ignorant in just about every field—except perhaps, how to stay on Trump’s right (far-right) side, and how to execute a puppy—that I am pretty certain she was clueless about this as well.

Remember, this is the same Secretary Kristi Noem who, when, while giving congressional testimony, she was asked by Senator Maggie Hassan if she could explain what habeas corpus was, had no idea what the senator was talking about. Now remember, we’re referring to the head of Homeland Security who should know—as knowledge crucial to her job description—at least the basic elements of the rule of  law as it relates to human and civil rights. Nevertheless, her jaw-dropping response was that habeas corpus was, “A constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their rights.”

That stunningly imbecilic answer—which obviously baffled and infuriated Senator Hassan—was not merely wrong. It was pretty much diametrically contrary to the meaning of habeas corpus, which is, in fact, a fundamental legal protection requiring the government to show a valid reason for holding someone in detention. Its purpose is, indeed, to protect against arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention, and is one of the legal guarantees that separate free societies from police states. And even in the military police state under which I lived in Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s, habeas corpus was still a legal lever that worked, and one we, as journalists, employed in seeking to find people who had “disappeared”.

But then, a police state is precisely what Secretary Noem is seeking to impose in the name of Donald Trump. So, hey, why bother learning what habeas corpus means?  Actually, why bother learning what any law means.

In point of fact, there hasn’t been a federal law passed in the history of the United States that Donald Trump won’t pardon violators for, as long as they are his minions and/or cronies—i.e., Roger Stone, yes, Michael Cohen, no; it all depends on how willing you are to suck up…and cover up.

Some fact-checkers (Snopes for one) have claimed there’s no credible evidence that the controversial slogan originated with the Nazis—although, come on, there’s not much room for interpretation of what it means, whether it originated with the SS or Al Capone. And suffice it to say that clarification is provided, in Noem’s case, for instance, by virtue of the fact that she and Team Trump defense attorney (also loosely referred to as the “Attorney General”) Pamela Bondi have twisted arms and held careers for ransom to ensure that fatal ICE victim Renee Good and her widow Becca are being investigated, instead of the rogue ICE agent, Jonathon Ross, who summarily executed her.

But there is a complicity in this sort of “fact-checking”, because while it may be true that “one of ours, all of yours” might not be, verbatim, a Nazi slogan, there was at least one Nazi motto (that bespoke a generalized SS and Gestapo policy), which fits this one to a tee.  The phrase I’m speaking of is  Jednoho nacistu – všichni Češi! Which translates from Czech as "For one Nazi – all Czechs!"

Here's the story behind the motto.

Heydrich (right) with  Himmler

After occupying the former Czechoslovakia in 1939, the Nazi government of Germany under Adolf Hitler set up what was called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, with headquarters in the Czech capital of Prague. It was a prized conquered possession for Hitler and he placed one of his right-hand men, Reinhard Heydrich, in charge. Heydrich was already the head of Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), and, as such, one of the main architects of the Holocaust. In his new dual role, he also became Reichsprotektor for that Nazi “protectorate”.

Heydrich was appointed after both Hitler and his chief lieutenant, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler agreed that their original choice, Konstantin von Neurath, was too soft on Czechs who promoted anti-German sentiment—you know, like the governor of Minnesota and mayor of Minneapolis whom the Trump regime is accusing of being too soft on citizens who promote anti-Trump and anti-ICE sentiment. And, just like that, they wanted somebody—rather like Noem now that I think about it—who would head up a real crackdown without flinching.

Heydrich was the “right” choice. The stated mission he was sent to Prague to carry out was the strengthening and enforcement of central government policies –much like Noem and ICE in their occupation of Democratic states and cities.

Heydrich was so certain of the effectiveness of his ruthless tactics that he allowed his driver to transport him from place to place in an open-roofed car. He saw it as a show of his confidence in the Nazi occupation forces and in his own effectiveness as regional strongman.  And, indeed, his reputation for brutality in establishing the omnipotence of the Führer earned him several chilling monikers—the Butcher of Prague, the Hangman, and the Blond Beast.

The Czech Resistance eventually decided enough was enough, and, in a major coup, codenamed Operation Anthropoid, after several months of careful planning, used Heydrich’s own arrogance against him, by throwing an anti-tank grenade at his open car. This was a Plan B move, since the Czech Resistance agent’s British-made Sten machine-gun jammed and Heydrich drew down on the Czech gunman with his Lugar service pistol. Although the grenade the agent threw failed to land inside the car, Heydrich was still severely injured by shrapnel, and succumbed a few days later to his wounds.

Hedyrich's car after the grenade attack

This was when Hitler breathed death into his sinister one-of-ours-all-of-yours policy in Czechoslovakia. In retaliation for the slaying of Heydrich, the Nazis arrested and interrogated some 13,000 Czechs, later executing 5,000. Many of these summary execution victims were civilians—men women and children—slaughtered in the atrocity known as the Lidice Massacre. The Nazis razed to the ground both the village of Lidice—wrongly signaled as participating in the plot to kill Heydrich—and the village of Ležáky (where the Nazis found a Resistance radio transmitter). Large numbers of innocent citizens from both places were among those executed.

Reminiscence of Nazism in the Trump regime isn’t some conspiracy theory invented by the government’s opponents. No, it is originating within the regime itself, starting with Trump and his rally cries about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” or his white-supremacy-centric calls for what he considers a “better class” of alien. Like when he asked rhetorically, “"Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? Let's have a few from Denmark.”

The white supremacy thread is not fake news. It runs through and through the fabric of this administration whose leader refers to the places black and brown people come from as “shithole countries”, and to their people as “vermin” and “garbage”. This regime has all but said out loud, If you’re not white, you’re not American, and even then, it’s open to ICE and DHS interpretation.

And right out in front of the Trump regime’s white nationalist parade, beating the drum for “purification”, is Kristi Noem and her lawless ICE paramilitary. Those of us who, from the outset, signaled the similarities between Trump and Hitler didn’t get it wrong. Reluctant Democrat Senator John Fetterman did when he said people had to stop comparing the two, because Hitler was the worst dictator in history and Trump wasn’t even close, nor was he a dictator.

Hitler wasn’t always a dictator either. He, like Trump, was just a would-be dictator first. But then, he did all of the same things that Trump is doing, from sidelining the legislature and intimidating justice to eventually declaring himself and the Reich the one and only supreme authority in Germany. (Trump recently said he “didn’t need international law”, because he was guided solely by his own “morality”). Hitler consolidated his power by creating a paramilitary loyal only to him, by imprisoning his opponents, and by invading other nations and turning them into vassal states. He also did it by creating concentration camps for peoples he considered “undesirable” to the Aryan race. And he did it too by ignoring the law and the consequences of his acts.

Does any of this sound familiar? Hitler’s regime was in power for 12 years. Trump’s is just getting started. Give it time...or not.