Silence Gives Consent

The mere apprehension of a coming peril has put many into a situation of the utmost danger. (Muiltos in summa pericula misit Venturi timor ipse mali.)
Lucan, De Vello Civili

And so it is, and so it was and so will it always be. We prefer to believe that nothing dreadful will occur to us, and even when the signs are there, we think that we are exempt because of our very uniqueness, for our destiny calls us elsewhere than to the possibility of extinction before our time has passed.

Sauvity toward the Jews! Although you have lived among them, it is evident that you little understand those enemies of the human race. Haughty and at the same time base, combining an invincible obstinacy with a spirit despicably mean, they weary alike your love and your hatred.
Anatole France

 Danger lurks, and there are subtle signals, and then the longer they persist, the more overt they become, and still our inability to discern the symptoms lapse, because we are not, despite our history of desperate oppression, naturally paranoid.

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water.
Shakespeare

Law on Jewish Residents -- Articles 1 and 3: 3 October 1940: this law excluded Jews from elected bodies, from positions of responsibility in the civil service, judiciary, and military services, and from positions influencing cultural life (teaching in public schools, newspaper reporting or editing, direction of films or radio programs and also defined Jews racially as anyone with three Jewish grandparents, whatever the religion of the present generation.
Robert O. Paxton

There were ample and more than evident signs well before this time in the years preceding the outbreak of the Second World War that Nazi Germany designated Jews as inferior beings. Jews were distinguished by yellow stars to be worn at all times in public so that they could be readily distinguished from citizens who were worthy and assured of all their rights as full-fledged Germans, unlike the despised Jews.

He hath ... laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies: and what's his reason? I am a Jew.
William Shakespeare 

The German slander and propaganda machine went into overdrive, with a focus on placing the blame on Jewish interests for having brought the Fatherland to financial crisis, mass unemployment and at cross purposes with its European neighbours who dealt harshly with it after the Great War, crushing the life out of the country, leaving it little option but to plan for another conflict to restore its honour and rightful place in the world order.

And since Jews, proprietors of financial institutions, news media, cultural groups and academia and law had infiltrated the country to such a deleterious degree with the intention of bringing it to its knees to dominate and control the superior Aryan race, there was no option but to round them all up into isolated-from-society ghettoes and slowly unfold a plan of mass transportation to concentration and labour camps and death camps.

Still on Israel's head forlorn,
Every nation heaps its scorn.
Emma Lazarus - The World's Justice

Latent anti-Semitism in the countries of Europe that came under Nazi domination were only too eager to satisfy the demands of their conquerors, to save themselves from further indignities. Some countries like Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and France were most helpful in that regard, others somewhat less enthusiastic, but helpful nonetheless.

A hopeless faith, a homeless race,
Yet seeking the most holy place,
And owning the true bliss....
Or like pale ghosts that darkling roam,
Hovering around their ancient home,
but find no refuge there.
John Keble

Ask what the darkness of utter despair looks like, feels like, tastes like, and those rare survivors of Nazi death camps shudder and recall what nightmares they endured. And they were those whom fortune smiled upon, and whose own faint candle of hope kept that dimming flame alive.

Triumphant race! And did your power decay?
Failed the bright promise of your early day?
Reginald Heber

Pale disease Shall linger by thy side, and thou shalt know Eternal autumn to thy day of death.
When people talk about a wealthy man of my creed, they call him an Israelite; but if he is poor they call him a Jew.
Heinrich Heine