1933 and 2020

Like Trump’s America, Johnson’s Britain has a real “last years of the Weimar Republic” feel about it, replete with far-right populists, toxic nationalism, cultural backlash and parts of the left and trade union movement so compromised by these things that they offer no firm resistance. In 1930s Germany, the left constantly under-estimated Hitler and failed to work together with other non-Nazi elements to oppose him. Some saw no difference between populist fascism and traditional conservatism. Some saw “elitist liberals” as the real enemy. Within weeks of Hitler’s victory in January 1933 trade union HQs were closed and leading Communist and Socialist activists could debate these matters together in the first concentration camps. For people who supposedly read and study history, the left never seems to learn anything from it.