Flossenbürg

25/2/2025

'We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.' (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

At a time when much of the democratic West is shifting politically to the right, I had a very harrowing experience today – visiting Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg, a former Nazi concentration camp in southern Germany. Despite dedicating much of my adult life to trying to prevent the conditions that allow such destructive ideologies to take hold, nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming weight of such a place.

Standing before the memorial stones, each marked with a different flag, I read the staggering numbers – lists of people from various countries who were shot, hanged and burned within its barbed wire walls. I felt again an indescribable horror at the sheer brutality of the Nazi regime. A hard question haunted me: ‘How on earth did things get this bad?’ And equally disturbingly, ‘How is it that we, as humans, are capable of such evil?’

Because this isn’t just history and it isn’t just about them. It’s about us and now.

This evening, back in my room, I turned on the TV news. More headlines about the growing success of the AfD in Germany – then Starmer appeasing MAGA Trump by increasing UK weapons spending, whilst deftly slashing the foreign aid budget. (He clearly misunderstood Robin Hood as a child). Rising nationalism. 'Us first' ethnocentrism. Crackdowns on free speech. Preparations for war. Does any of this sound familiar?

18 Comments

Lena Krauss

26/2/2025 12:22:01 pm

Hi Nick. Yes, it sounds familiar. And that is the terrifying thing. I am so tired of people who say, "Oh, it is not so bad!" It always starts small. With words. With politicians who are "just asking questions." With people who turn away because it does not affect them directly. The AfD is growing because too many people in Germany still believe that "it cannot happen here." Because people think that protest voting is harmless. That nationalism is just a little bit of love for home. But we have no excuses. We have our own history as a warning. Everyone who says that all this is just panic-making should spend one afternoon in Flossenbürg. Then we can continue talking.

Nick Wright

26/2/2025 08:57:03 pm

Thank you, Lena. I guess one of the challenges in Germany is that there isn't an exact equivalence between the Nazis and the AfD, or the circumstances in which they rose/are rising in influence in German society. That means we don't yet know what the consequences might be of AfD electoral success. We do know, however, that we need to keep our eyes and ears wide open to the potential risks and to do everything we can to avoid moving further in an extremist direction.

Ryna Campbell

26/2/2025 12:25:50 pm

Nick, I read your post with a lump in my throat. I visited Dachau a few years ago and it left a scar on my soul, one I’m not sure will ever fully fade. Walking through the remnants of such industrialised cruelty, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of history pressing down on you. But what chills me more is exactly what you point to: the echoes of then in the now. I, too, wonder how it got that bad and I fear how close we are to letting it happen again. The slow, creeping normalization of hate. The shifting Overton window that allows open bigotry to rebrand itself as “patriotism.” The same mistakes dressed up in different rhetoric. Your words resonate deeply. But what do we do? How do we drive that spoke into the wheel before it’s too late? I don't know what to do.

26/2/2025 09:03:36 pm

Thank you, Ryna. Yes, Dachau sounds incredibly harrowing too. I agree that there is a risk of a slow, creeping normalisation of things that, until now, we would have reacted strongly against - including the gradual erosion of democratic freedom of expression in the UK. You reminded me of the 'boiling frog syndrome', whereby we could find ourselves sleepwalking into disaster - and wake up too late. How to snap ourselves and wider societies out of it? This short piece may resonate: https://www.nick-wright.com/a-jolting-wake-up-call.html

Liz Marchant

26/2/2025 12:33:12 pm

Thanks for posting this Nick. History doesn’t repeat itself, they say, but it rhymes. And today I, like you, hear the echoes in the wind. I hear it in the speeches where 'security' means exclusion. In the policies where 'prosperity' is for some but not for others. I hear it in the rhetoric that turns neighbours into enemies, that tells us to be afraid, that whispers: Remember how good it was before them. You stood at Flossenbürg where those whispers became screams. Where nationalism, left unchecked, became murder. Where 'us first' became 'them never. And yet we still haven’t learned. Keep writing, and keep praying.

26/2/2025 09:09:01 pm

Thank you, Liz. I like how you expressed that: 'History doesn’t repeat itself, they say, but it rhymes. And today I, like you, hear the echoes in the wind.' Yes - subtle changes in language, reframing of realities etc. are happening all across the world at the moment. Putin's euphemistic 'special military operation' to mask the violent invasion of another country is just one example. 'Keep praying'. Yes indeed. I spoke with a Ukrainian refugee in Germany this evening and that was her most insistent plea too.

Elias Myers PhD

26/2/2025 12:44:13 pm

Nick the trends you mention, rising nationalism, anti-immigrant rhetoric, militarization, are concerning precisely because they follow patterns we’ve seen before.

But it’s important to be precise in our comparisons. While there are alarming tendencies in today’s politics, we must avoid collapsing history into overly simplistic parallels. The rise of the AfD, for example, is deeply tied to contemporary issues such as economic discontent, demographic anxieties and a fractured media landscape. That does not diminish the danger they pose, but it does mean that countering them requires a strategy tailored to the present, not just a warning from the past.

Bonhoeffer’s words are powerful. But what does it mean to “drive a spoke into the wheel” today? Beyond moral outrage, we need structural interventions: better civic education, stronger protections for democracy and economic policies that address the root grievances exploited by extremists. The past offers lessons, but the solutions must be forged in the present.

26/2/2025 09:17:04 pm

Hi Elias and well-said. Yes, we are seeing something more like dynamic equivalence than exact repeats of events from history. I like your comment that 'Countering them requires a strategy tailored to the present, not just a warning from the past.' I agree too on your structural intervention ideas - although I see few governments now paying attention to such things and, if anything, see democracies being weakened instead. The moment to 'drive a spoke into the wheel' is now...while there's still a chance and before we're steamrolled into a crushing silence.

Andreas

26/2/2025 12:59:05 pm

Hi Nick. I understand your concern, really. But as a German who has spent his whole life in this country, I am also a little skeptical about the way how often international voices point at us with a raised finger while similar developments in their own countries are ignored. Yes, the AfD is dangerous. Yes, they must be fought. But if one really wants to understand why they grow, one must dig deeper. Decades-long neglect of rural regions. A feeling that the political elite does not take the worries of the people seriously. Refugee policies that were not properly communicated or managed. It is exactly these factors that in the 1920s and 30s led to extremist movements.

I am frustrated because I see how history repeats, not only in Germany but everywhere. But what frustrates me even more is the fact that many people are only concerned when it happens here, although the seeds for these problems were planted long ago everywhere.

26/2/2025 09:24:50 pm

Hi Andreas. I think that's fair comment and I apologise if my blog reflections sounded like pointing a finger at Germany too. That's certainly not my intention. The Nazis - along with, say, Soviet Communism - provide something like cultural reference points; enabling us to glimpse what totalitarianism can look like and become at its worst. If we notice patterns emerging in any society or international institution that mirror those reference points, we know we need to take urgent action. In that sense, it's a bit like a red flag - a warning from history we need to listen to and act upon with decisiveness and determination.

Patty Grabiner

26/2/2025 01:05:10 pm

Nick, your Robin Hood comment made me laugh! Thank you for bringing a bit of light humour into such a a dark topic.

26/2/2025 09:25:58 pm

Hi Patty. I'm glad you appreciated it! :)

Mike

26/2/2025 01:29:01 pm

Sir Keir, the Knight of Nowhere

Oh, Sir Keir, so bold, so grand,
With principles like shifting sand.
One day left, the next day right,
Forever chasing fleeting light.

A Europe dream, how fine, how swell!
He'd lead them all (or so he'd tell).
But first, a bow, a curtsy deep,
To Donald Trump, "Sir, I'm your sheep!"

"Good sir, I backed remain, you see,
But now, a Brexit fan I be!
Just tell me what you want me to,
And I’ll proclaim that it is true!"

Yet here at home, a different fight,
To crush dissent with all his might.
"Free speech?" he scoffs, "That’s rather quaint,
We need control, a tight restraint!"

And oh, the poor? Well, they’ll survive,
On scraps and debt, but still alive.
For bombs must fly and guns must roar,
So slash the aid, they'll get no more!

A statesman? No, a man adrift,
Who swaps his values like a gift.
A leader? Yes, but just of air,
A knight of nowhere, going nowhere.

26/2/2025 09:27:02 pm

Hi Mike. Wow - I mean, WOW. Very clever and very creative!

Lilla

26/2/2025 02:08:02 pm

Thank you for your blog, Nick! The suffering of those times was immense and must not be forgotten, especially in times of uncertainty. It is impossible to comprehend the cruelty endured in concentration camps fully.
Here are some poignant poems written by Auschwitz prisoners, reflecting their harrowing experiences.
Hearing their silenced voices from so long ago is a gift to the modern world. They are a testament to courage and beauty amid tragedy and destruction.

"Appell" ("Roll Call") – Krystyna Żywulska

"When the night ends,
and the sky slowly pales,
our torment begins,
our day, our roll call."

Source: Krystyna Żywulska - Music and the Holocaust

"The Last Bet" – Anonymous Ravensbrück Prisoner

"The sky over the camp,
Migratory birds fly by,
We place our last bet,
Will we live or die?"

Source: Collection of poems written by prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp

"The Butterfly" – Pavel Friedmann

"The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears
would sing against a white stone..."

Source: I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944

"Vigil" – Jadwiga Krasicka

"In the stillness of the night,
Eyes wide, sleep's out of sight.
Through the bars, the cold winds sigh,
Whispering freedoms gone by."

Source: Collection of poems written by prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp

"Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car" – Dan Pagis

"here in this carload
i am eve
with abel my son
if you see my other son
cain son of man
tell him that i"

Source: Dan Pagis – Poetry Foundation

"En marcha de la muerte" ("On the Death March") – Moshe Ha-Elion

"On frozen roads we trudge in despair,
Feet bleeding, souls stripped bare.
Under the watchful eye's cruel glare,
Dreaming of freedom's elusive air."

Source: Moshe Ha-Elion – Wikipedia

26/2/2025 09:28:05 pm

Thank you for sharing those poems, Lilla. One word: heartbreaking.

Melanie Breckell

28/2/2025 10:12:37 pm

Anneliese Dodds’ resignation today called out Starmer on his decision: “In effect, she is saying he is being misleading over the effect of the cuts, which will "remove food and healthcare from desperate people".
And that while he has made a tactical decision – essentially, using a defence spending hike to grease the wheels of his meeting with President Trump - she maintains that the PM has made a strategic error…” (BBC News 28/2/25) 👍

8/3/2025 11:21:31 am

Hi Melanie. Yes, Anneliese Dodd's resignation signified, for me, a politician who is willing to place principle above expediency. At a time when I feel so dismayed by so many politicians, I applaud her integrity.

Flossenbürg

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