The Allied victory in 1945 brought relief and joy to Europe, but to some people it was the start of a new nightmare. As the Allies celebrated their victory over the genocidal Nazi regime, Europe was experiencing the start of another ethnic cleansing that would target millions of people purely because of the way they were born or the language they spoke. Millions of innocent people would be removed from their ancestral homes, stripped of their rights and dignity, and told that they deserved it. Torture, rape, and murder awaited hundreds of thousands of them.

Lies of omission are often more powerful that an outright lie.

I remember when I learned as a young man that following the US entrance to WW1 many German immigrants were persecuted. Tarred and feathered. Some killed. I had never heard this before. Even though my great grandfather was a German immigrant.

We humans fail to learn the lessons from history. Everyone suffers from war. Except the elites. The politicians and the bankers/corporate overlords. It struck me at the time I learned about this how Bin Laden is said to have stated that there are no innocent people in the US because they did nothing to stop the US wars in the holy land. That's one way to view the world I guess. It clearly isn't new. Its as old as time and leads to never ending bloodshed.

Just some basic info about the WW1 persecution. Might be good to remember this kind of stuff and how it repeats.

President Woodrow Wilson declared all German nationals “enemy aliens,” stripping them of rights. They were required to register, carry identification, and were barred from working near military installations or in Washington, D.C. Over 2,000 Germans were interned in camps, including prominent figures like Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Karl Muck.

Cultural Erasure: German language and culture were systematically suppressed. German was banned in schools and public life. German-language newspapers were censored or shut down. German music (e.g., Bach, Beethoven) was removed from concert programs. Foods like sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” and dachshunds were renamed “liberty hounds.”

Violence and Lynchings: Physical attacks were common. In Collinsville, Illinois, German-born immigrant Robert Prager was lynched in 1918 after being falsely accused of espionage. He was stripped, forced to walk on broken glass, made to sing patriotic songs, and hanged in a public spectacle. The local newspaper declared his death a “wholesome lesson” to others.

Social and Economic Harassment: German-American businesses were boycotted. German street names were changed. People with German-sounding names faced job loss and social ostracism. The American Protective League, a volunteer group of 250,000 members, spied on suspected disloyalty, often targeting German Americans.
Propaganda and Dehumanization: The U.S. government and media portrayed Germans as “Huns”—brutal, uncivilized, and subhuman. This dehumanizing rhetoric justified persecution and fueled mob violence.

I love America. I love the land and the people. I do not love the state. It feeds on the worst in us.

The more history you familiarize yourself with the more you realize that it just repeats. Some leaders are worse than others. Some governments are worse than others. Some nations (people) are worse than others at times. But these things are everywhere when you look for them.

They appear in every "just" war. I don't expect everyone to be anti-war but we should be honest about it. The good vs. evil stuff is wrong on both accounts.

Even when you look at the crusades. Its not as simple as good vs. evil. Nor with WW1 or WW2. We drown in evil. Evil, and more evil. And evil to stop evil. War is hell. War is the life of the state.