Fighting Words

Yesterday, I posted this video of the Nazi blood judge Roland Freisler berating a political dissident in a comment on a different thread.  This is not the first time that I have seen this video.  I have watched it many times before for the powerful message that it conveys.  There is also a movie about this particular event that I have seen, but unfortunately cannot recall the name.

I say powerful message because this event has a couple of similarities, and striking dissimilarity with what recently took place in Iran.  The defendant in this case is a former Nazi sympathizer.  He had been in Poland trying to spread propaganda about “German heritage.”  But he later saw the true nature of the Nazis and how they treated those who disagreed with them--and for the purposes of this blog, I am only talking about political dissidents in Nazi Germany.  He talks about “murders” that he saw, which caused him to become a dissident.  Freisler than tries to force him to express some regret, but the defendant—in a display of utmost courage—refuses.  He says “no” when he is asked if he is “cracking” under his own “villainy.”  Pure courage.  No regrets, no confessions, no apologies…even in face of certain death.  This man was later executed, with a guillotine. 

We had a very similar situation with elements of the “Green Movement” when they were put on show trials by the IRI.  They were mostly former hardcore Islamist revolutionaries.  They had seen injustice, murder and tyranny.  They became opposed to it.  But when it came time to stand their ground, they folded.  Unlike that brave man who stood up and said what he believed in to a belligerent Freisler—and in , all of those guys wrote confessions, apologized, reaffirmed their allegiance to the Islamic Republic and generally shut their mouths.  And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, we are where we are today.  We don’t have those who stand up for their principles, even if they have one.  And the rest of us—myself included—are writing blogs under anonymous names and traveling to Iran for the summer to enjoy the food and fun.  The Islamic Republic will rule us for decades to come.