ISIS: Ominous shades of Hitler's Germany

ISIS is in the news for its barbaric and torturous advance in Iraq and Syria. According to news reports, it has carried out an attack on a Saudi Arabian border patrol near the city of Arar, which is located northeast of Saudi Arabia on the Iraqi border. As bizarre as it seems, ISIS is only one in a series of atrocities in world history.

Of recent memory, Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich (1933 to 1945) advanced and invaded countries while the world watched. One of the cornerstones of his philosophy was to isolate civilian populations from their culture, including the burning of books, and imposing Nazi law. In particular, he targeted Jews, as we all know, purported as "ethnic cleansing."

Hitler, appointed as Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg in 1933, seized power as dictator in November that year after the "Enabling Act" allowed him and his cabinet to pass laws even if they violated the constitution and brought all aspect of life under control of his party, the German National People's Party. Leadership of all civilian organizations had their leadership replaced with Nazi sympathizers or party members. Sound familiar?

In February 1933, the "Reichstag Fire Decree" was imposed after Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, set fire to the Reichstag building and was found guilty of starting the blaze, with Hitler proclaiming that the fire was the start of a communist uprising. The Decree rescinded assembly, freedom of the press and most of the German civil liberties. In July 1933, Germany became a single-party state when the founding of new parties became illegal. Hitler's buddy, Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda, deluged the populace with a promise of peace and prosperity for all. The first Nazi concentration camp for "political prisoners" opened that year in Dachau. You are all familiar with the rest of the story. Until they turned on the Soviet Union, the war machine was destined to take over the world. The axis powers were Germany, Italy and Japan, in case you missed it in history class. Japan invaded China and Korea and then bombed Pearl Harbor. They knew they awoke a sleeping giant.

Conquering a civilization involves exactly what Hitler did. Censoring books and burning libraries eliminates part of the fabric of a culture. It deprives the people of a belief system and focuses their attention to their new government and destroys records of the past. "Countless ancient texts have been lost because of their existence posed a threat to prevailing views, often religious," from a blog by Michael Streich. It sums it up quite nicely.

ISIS recently proved that philosophy when it burned and looted more than 8,000 books and manuscripts when it invaded the Mosul Public Library last January. A local resident spoke to the Associated Press and told them that residents were told by a bearded militant in traditional two piece Afghani clothing, "these books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned." They also broke into the University of Mosul library and burned hundreds of books on science and culture in front of students. Some of the books and manuscripts date back to the Ottoman Empire. I had to look that up too. Historically, it is referred to as the Turkish Empire and was a Sunni Islamic state founded in 1299. It became known as Turkey in 1922.

ISIS is on a rampage to create a worldwide caliphate, an Islamic State that claims religious, military and political authority over all Muslims worldwide. The United Nations has held the group responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes. In the news and in videos posted on the Internet, we have witnessed those atrocities.

In historical perspective, this is a continuation of brutal assaults aimed at invasion and control of other countries and civilizations. History does repeat itself. The ISIS advance is being blunted by the U.S.-led coalition of air strikes, militias, and Iranian and Kurdish troops supporting Iraqi security forces. It's just a matter of time to end their reign of terror. That is if the politicians have the courage to complete the mission. We shall see.

Jack Evensizer is a resident of Dalton Gardens.