Counteracting the “Heil Hitler” phenomenon
On the morning before the Jewish New Year, I walked into a neighborhood grocery store and was greeted by a customer with “Heil Hitler!” and a Nazi salute. My stunned silence prompted the man to shout “Heil Hitler” even louder. He eagerly came closer to me, repeating the Sieg Heil salute, which was adopted in the 1930s to signal national obedience to Adolf Hitler. The crowd waiting in line for the cashier giggled. I gagged, and hoped it was all just a bad joke.
But it wasn’t. He turned to the crowd and explained why they should join him. “Hitler could rally the crowd, inspire everyone to join him. So follow me, Heil Hitler, then we’ll all say a prayer.” Hearing this linking of Hitler to faith and prayer, the cashier turned green. I turned purple.
I tried to tell him that my father served in World War II and had seen the evil that Hitler did. But the man cut me off saying how he came from a long line of U.S. army patriots: his dad had served in Vietnam and his grandfather served in the Korean War. Today’s politics can reinforce this version of patriotism. For example, a GOP congressional candidate recently talked about how Adolf Hitler had aroused the crowds, “… get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just — they were hypnotized by him…I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational.”
