My Comment: The age
of right wing extremism is not just a phenomenon in America. It is
happening all over Europe in Hungary, in France, in Britain and, yes,
even in a Germany that once brought you the extermination of 6 million
Jews and the murdering of 50,000,000 others in the theater of WWII. It
is happening around the globe I maintain inspired in large part by
Trump's capturing the Republican party as a gateway to an authoritarian
politic.
Perhaps
this Frontline special will ask the ever present question why. Why is
this happening? Why in our democracy loving nation, a nation that won
WWII against the Nazi menace does this nation find as evidenced by the
January 6 insurrection of the Capitol right wing seditionists whose
T-shirts read "6MWE" (Six Million Wasn't Enough) worn by the right wing
extremist Proud Boys and another shirt which read "Camp Auschwitz."
This was the flavor of the Donald Trump inspired overthrow of our nation
complete with Confederate flags and present day American Nazi symbols.
Have
we had enough of the Trump and his Republican choir boys subverting our
true culture? I'd like to think so. Send this email to all you
choose encouraging them to work against any possibility of a Trump
victory or for that matter Republican anti-democracy victories in
Congress as well as in state legislatures as they try to subvert
elections through a second Jim Crow era targeting the voter elimination
of Blacks and other persons of color who vote Democratic. If Trump fails here perhaps Fascism will not gain a foothold anywhere else -- even in Germany.
FRONTLINE:
An
attempted massacre of worshipers at a synagogue on Yom Kippur. The
assassination of a pro-refugee politician. A mass shooting targeting
Muslims. Extremists, many of them ex-military, planning for civil war,
creating death lists and stockpiling weapons and body bags.
What has fueled the wave of violence and hate against against Jews,
Muslims, immigrants and left-wing politicians in Germany over the past
five years?
Decades after the Holocaust, tonight's new FRONTLINE documentary
investigates the rise of neo-Nazi ideology and far-right extremism in
modern-day Germany — including within the country’s military and police —
and why authorities are struggling to confront the growing problem.
From
reporter, producer and director Evan Williams, Germany's Neo-Nazis
& the Far Right premieres tonight on PBS and online. The documentary
is supported by Exploring Hate, a multiplatform public media initiative
from The WNET Group in New York aimed at offering an in-depth
understanding of the rising tide of hatred, hate crimes, antisemitism
and racism.
Gripping and alarming, Germany’s Neo-Nazis & the Far Right is a
powerful look at Germany’s efforts to come to terms with its past — and
its present.
“Right-wing extremism is the most vital threat that we face at the
moment in the Federal Republic of Germany,” Stephan Kramer, the
intelligence chief in Germany's Thuringia state, says in the film. “We
have 'round about 35,000 considered right-wing extremists across
Germany; 13 to 14,000, roughly spoken, considered to be aggressive and
violent. But the problem is, it’s like with an iceberg: You see just a
small tip on the surface, and the rest is beneath.”
Don't
miss the documentary The Wall Street Journal calls “riveting and richly
complex" and “a compelling investigation into the rise of extremism in a
country that has known its terrors.”
Germany's
Neo-Nazis & the Far Right premieres tonight at 10/9c on PBS
stations (check local listings) and on YouTube, and will be available to
stream starting at 7/6c in the PBS Video App and in FRONTLINE’s online
collection of documentaries.
Thank you for watching.
PATRICE TADDONIO
Digital Writer & Audience Development Strategist, FRONTLINE
