Time Magazine Man of the Year

I just read an interesting article in an archived issue of Time Magazine. As many know Time Magazine annually selects "A Person of the Year," and that person is selected because the editorial board of the magazine saw that person as having the greatest impact, good or bad, for the year in the news.

What I found disturbing is if you delete identifying names and places and focus solely on the actions and events which made this person newsworthy, he/she could be one of many powerful people today who can affect our lives. In 1938, the year before the beginning of the fighting in World War II, Time Magazine's Man of the Year was Adolf Hitler.

The article is remarkably informative about the German leader and discusses the Nazi's causing the loss of personal rights in Germany, the rise in antisemitism and racism, attacks on religion, the loss of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the massive nationalist propaganda flooding Germany. Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" which was a statement of Nazi beliefs and policies went through several printings to meet increasing demand. Various elections showed the German populace was increasingly accepting Hitler and the Nazis' blaming of Germany's problems on non-Germans, who supposedly were taking over and destroying Germany. Hitler did not sneak into power, and his support continued to grow despite the loss of rights, new restrictive laws, and the construction of concentration camps to contain those who object. His anti-Semitic views had been published, and he expressed his anti-democracy views. Hitler appealed to the German populace by presenting extreme nationalism as patriotism. It is a mistake to see nationalism as patriotism. George Orwell wrote, patriotism stems from "devotion to a particular place and to a particular way of life" Nationalism, by contrast, "is inseparable from the desire for power."

After World War II many pleaded ignorance of the intents and actions of the Nazis in Germany even though in 1938 the correspondents and editors of Time magazine were able to foresee what was developing in Germany. Millions would die in the coming World War because the world ignored forecasts of what Hitler was going to do. This historic article contains warnings for today.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.