In 1936, the American artist Alice Neel painted a scene of a torchlight protest in New York City. The painting is claustrophobic, dominated by dark, heavy strokes and a dense crowd of demonstrators. In the center, illuminated by the torches, a single white placard carries a blunt, chilling message in black paint. It reads: “Nazis Murder Jews.”

Looking at this painting today, the immediate question is one of foresight. How did a group of activists marching through the streets of New York in 1936 grasp the lethal endgame of the Third Reich, years before the industrial machinery of the Holocaust was fully assembled? And conversely, why did the educated political class, the diplomatic corps, and the elite media fail to see what was plainly written on a cardboard sign?

The popular aphorism, often attributed to Mark Twain, suggests that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. The rhyme between the mid-1930s and our current moment is growing deafening. If we examine the mechanics of how the West ignored the gathering storm then, we can recognize the exact same machinery of denial operating today.

In 1936, the international community gathered in Berlin for the Olympic Games. The Nazi regime temporarily sanitized its virulent antisemitism for global consumption. It worked flawlessly. Many American and British journalists returned home with glowing reports of German efficiency and hospitality. They viewed Hitler as a stabilizing force, a bulwark against Bolshevism, or simply a nationalist leader with whom one could do business.

Did the political class miss the warning signs? No. The information was entirely available. The Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jews of their citizenship, were passed in 1935. The violence in the streets of German cities was widely reported. The protestors in Alice Neel’s painting did not possess secret intelligence. They simply chose to take the Nazis at their word.

The political elite, however, engaged in a massive, collective exercise of willful blindness. For leaders like Neville........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)