Dorothy Thompson was a very very interesting character. She was a radio broadcaster and a journalist who had covered the rise of Nazi Germany and whom the Nazis expelled from the country. She had eclectic and often changing views and I don’t think that I would have agreed with her on everything had she still been alive, but I can well imagine having a stimulating conversation with her.

Back in 1941 she wrote for Harpers Magazine a highly original piece for the time about who, if Nazism had arisen or been imported to America who, out of some anonymous party guests of different types, races, religions and backgrounds would ‘go Nazi’ if this was something offered to them. In this piece Ms Thompson imagines a crowd at a swanky party with servants and wonders what in each persons character or background would make anybody there whether they be guest or staff, choose to run towards Nazism or run away from it.

It’s important to remember when reading this piece that it was written in 1941 and roughly four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour which brought the United States of American fully into the Second World War. It was also written well before the public had any detail about what was going on in Germany and its concentration and death camp system along with the full extent of the horrors of the Holocaust which were not properly revealed to the world until 1945. Some of this article may jar on modern ears especially with the increased knowledge that has been garnered since 1941, but it’s still a good piece of writing.

Some may look at this article and wonder whether there are parallels in today’s world at least as far as giving fuel to speculating about who at a party held today would choose or reject authoritarianism. Who out of a group of people would find and then cling fervently to an ideology to the extent of extremism, who would be a moderate in both politics and religion, who would cynically use ideologies to advance their personal wealth and power, who would denounce political ‘heretics’ and who would support their right to speak their so-called heresy. Other party goers might be those who are loyal to their friends or those who would discard friends in order to gain an advantage or to make themselves look good. The party might also contain those who when there are times of trouble in society will help those who are unjustly persecuted by the State and others who would have no moral qualms about becoming a state informer.

Here’s the intro to this piece and I would strongly advise you to give this very interesting and of its time bit of writing.

Dorothy Thompson said:

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.

It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more susceptible to Nazism than most people, but I doubt it. Jews are barred out, but it is an arbitrary ruling. I know lots of Jews who are born Nazis and many others who would heil Hitler tomorrow morning if given a chance. There are Jews who have repudiated their own ancestors in order to become “Honorary Aryans and Nazis”; there are full-blooded Jews who have enthusiastically entered Hitler’s secret service. Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type of mind.

It is also, to an immense extent, the disease of a generation—the generation which was either young or unborn at the end of the last war. This is as true of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans as of Germans. It is the disease of the so-called “lost generation.”

Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at work—a type of education, feeding, and physical training which has produced a new kind of human being with an imbalance in his nature. He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.

At any rate, let us look round the room.

READ THE REST OF THIS PIECE VIA THE LINK BELOW

https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/