Prevention Would Have Been Better Than Trials

“Politicians brought the Nazis to power and started the war. They are the ones who brought about these disgusting crimes.”

– Karl Doenitz, German admiral and would-be fuehrer after Hitler

On Nov. 20, 1945, the Nuremberg Trials began, bringing Hitler’s Nazi criminals to justice. By this time, several countries were destroyed, and 50 million people, 2.5 percent of the world’s population, lost their lives – including 12 million Jews, German dissidents, political opposition, intellectuals and others who were exterminated in Nazi concentration camps.

The world watched in horror as in the courtroom filled with Nazi criminals video footage was played of famished men, women and children who were mercilessly shot, starved and/or tortured, and then thrown carelessly into mass graves, all because they did not fall in line with the ideology of Adolf Hitler.

During the opening of the court proceedings, it is important to note that the prosecutor said, “The laws of God and man have been violated, and the guilty must not go unpunished.”

Just imagine if the Nuremberg Trials, per se, would have taken place at the first unconstitutional acts of Hitler’s wicked regime. Hitler could have easily been stopped in the 1920s with relative ease by the German people who still had the freedom to do the right thing, and did it not.

Instead, they acted as if Hitler had nothing to do with their personal lives.

Friends, as no one took Mussolini, Mao or Stalin seriously at first, many fellow Germans thought Hitler was an average run-of-the-mill wacko who posed no threat.

Horrifically, they were dead wrong.

One of Hitler’s first moves when he rose to power was to attack his own Reichstag, only to blame it on his political opposition. He then proceeded to eradicate the Constitution of Germany in only six years.

Hitler no longer abided by the law, but instead promulgated his agenda by force.

Where were the 80 million people in Germany to stand up against this monster?

As Karl Doenitz blurted out, it was the politicians (and the people) who were responsible for bringing the Nazis to power.

On a daily basis the crimes of Hitler and his regime were evident. So obvious were the atrocities that after church the Germans were wiping the ashes of the incinerated victims off their cars.

Their lack of action turned them from victims to accomplices.

What does this have to do with America today?

Everything.

It is clear to see that over the last four administrations, America’s government is emulating many aspects of German history – likewise setting itself at war with God, abusing power and trampling on the Constitution.

Where are the 312 million Americans to stand up and magnify the laws of our republic?

Have Americans today forgotten the price of their blood-bought freedoms, paid for by hundreds of thousands of veterans who laid down their lives, fortunes and sacred honor?

In the 1800s, after much bloodshed through the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson made one wrong move, causing him to be tried for impeachment.

Johnson simply removed the secretary of war from office without the consent of Congress. Americans were so protective over their liberties that they would not tolerate the least offense.

It would do us well to follow in our forefathers’ footsteps, lest we, like Germany, become accomplices to America’s overthrow through our apathy and lack of repentance – to our own demise.

As it says on the Supreme Court Building, “Justice (is) the guardian of liberty,” right under Moses holding the Ten Commandments. We must follow the preamble of our Constitution and “establish justice” (Isaiah 51) in order to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

America: Simply put, prevention is better than cure.

Interestingly, Time magazine merited the murderous dictator Adolf Hitler “Man of the Year” in 1938. Josef Stalin was also declared Time’s “Man of the Year” in 1939 and 1942, who, like Hitler, was responsible for committing heinous crimes against his own people. This brings one to ask what other criminals have been labeled “Man of the Year” by Time magazine. You may be surprised.

Study the past. History tends to repeat itself: