Reply #9: Why renounce citizenship? [View All]

[Zorra]

It's not the country, it's the fascist government we have a problem with.

Many Germans saw the writing on the wall and left the country where they were born and raised during the 1930's. What would have happened to them if they had stayed in Germany and opposed the nazis after they had full control? They would have been imprisoned and/or executed. Other Germans failed to recognize how dangerous the nazis were until it was too late, and could not leave. Many who stayed were supporters of Hitler.

I've been gone from the US for over three years now because of the Bu$h selection, my belief that his selection meant impending totalitarianism, and a desire to not support a government that did not have a democratically elected leader.

Leaving the country is also a gesture and method of non-support toward a violent, repressive government, and people who leave may provide a network and funding for others to escape after (if he is re-selected) Bu$h begins locking down the country. I don't know if Bu$h and the neocons will get as bad as Hitler and the Nazis, but the similarity at this stage is alarming, and I believe that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it:

During the 1930s and 1940s, many German Jews and intellectuals fled Nazi Germany. At first many of them moved to neighboring European countries seeking a haven for their religious and political views. As the National Socialists expanded their control throughout Europe, the German exiles were again in grave danger. Those who were able to escape across the Atlantic finally found safety in the United States. Some of these writers, artists, and intellectuals gathered in New York; however, Southern California's warm, Mediterranean-like climate attracted many to live on the West Coast.

http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/libraries/feuchtwanger/exiles/index.html

In reaction to the rapid rise and wide spread of totalitarian systems in the 1930's and 40's, cosmopolitan thinkers in New York founded an organization whose outlook was from the onset liberal and international. The members included well-known intellectuals and political figures from North and South America, as well as from Asia and Europe. The name of the organization was Free World. Its Honorary Board reads like a Who's Who of mid-20th century liberal thinkers and politicians, among them: former President of Argentina Marcello T. de Alvear, General Secretary of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches Henry A. Atkinson, President of the Czechoslovak Republic Eduard Benez, German exile physicist Albert Einstein, New York City Mayor Fiorella H. LaGuardia, Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann, German exile theologian and Chairman of the Union for Democratic Action Reinhold Niebuhr, and celebrated American columnist Dorothy Thompson. The journal, which the Free World organization - with the exception of one bimonthly issue - published monthly from October 1941 till December 1946, was appropriately titled Free World (hitherto quoted as FW). Its democratic nature, notwithstanding its high-quality contents, becomes immediately apparent when one, looking for its editor, only finds a list of more than a dozen names serving on the journal's editorial board. These names vary slightly over the course of the journal's five year-period, but they consistently include Louis Dolivet, who later is singled out as the "International Editor." Dolivet had the assistance of a managing editor, whose name also changed a few times. There was a group of editorial writers, who varied slightly over the course of the journal's life span, but whose prominence is exemplified by the five names listed in the journal's final issue: William L. Shirer, Orson Welles, Norman Angel, Max Ascoli, and Lin Yutang.

Under these circumstances it can hardly surprise us that a number of German and Austrian exiles, who had left their home countries under political pressure, also found themselves in the circle of Free World and that several left their imprint on the pages of its journal.

http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/05_02/pfanner15.htm

In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, Norway declared neutrality. Public opinion, however, sympathized with the Allies, for the Norwegians were convinced parliamentary democrats, and had strong economic ties with Britain. As late as 1935, the Norwegian Storting had awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to German pacifist CARL VON OSSIETZKY (who died in 1936 from the treatment received in a Nazi concentration camp). Norway also was host to many German exiles, such as future chancellor WILLY BRANDT.
On April 9th 1940, German troops invaded Denmark and Norway, without a previous declaration of war (OPERATION WESERUEBUNG). Vidkun Quisling, head of the fascist NASJONAL SAMLING, called on Norway's troops, over the radio, not to resist. They did not listen; resistance continued into June. However, neither the Norwegians nor British troops who had landed were able to stop the Germans. The royal family, as well as the country's leading democratic politicians, left the country for England, where a GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE was established. Occupied Norway was of importance for Germany's nuclear bomb project, because Norway had a Heavy Water Plant at Ryukan.

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/scandinavia/norway193945.html