Joshua Zeitz Urges South to be Treated like Post-WWII Germany

Joshua Zeitz, a liberal activist and historian from a New Jersey Jewish family, has a new article published by Politico in which he laments that Dixie is not treated like defeated Nazi Germany.

Zeitz writes that “the example of Germany’s post-war de-Nazification may offer a way forward for the United States.” He praises the Germany of today, with its millions of Muslim immigrants, declining native population and atmosphere of censored speech and Leftist political oppression, as a “vibrant democracy that is notably less permissive of racism, extremism and fascism than the United States.” The Jewish writer then describes the complete cultural and academic cleansing that was forced upon Germany and ultimately succeeded generations later in creating a self-loathing population that is shuffling dumbly to its collective grave. He notes that ultimately anti-German, pro-Jewish propaganda in the media was instrumental in breaking the will of the German people.

The writer explains how in his mind the South – which was devastated by the war, Reconstruction and decades of punitive economic and political measures meant to make the formerly wealthy region a colony of the North – actually got off easy. And Zeitz makes it clear that he favors taking down all Southern monuments and indoctrinating Southern youth in self-loathing (which they are already getting a heaping measure of in the public school system and mass media). Essentially, the author argues that the people of Dixie should be treated as a hostile enemy whose will and identity must be destroyed – just as was done to the Germans:

In Germany, you won’t see neo-Nazis converging on a monument to Reinhard Heydrich or Adolf Hitler, because no such statues exist. The country long ago came to grips with the full weight of its history. But you’ll find Nazis and Klansmen in Virginia, circling a statue of Robert E. Lee, a traitor who raised arms against his own country in the defense of white supremacy.

How do we explain to the descendants of his victims—fallen Union soldiers and widows, and so many million slaves—that Robert E. Lee doesn’t deserve the same eternal infamy as Eichmann or Heydrich?