This past December, the @HolocaustMuseum in Washington, D.C., accepted a donation of the book, "Fahnlein Fibel" from my family for their Nazi propaganda exhibit.

Here's the story of this book and its journey . . .

In June 1939, my 7-year-old mom, her two sisters, and mom (my grandmother), took the Nazi-flagged SS Bremen from New York to Hamburg, Germany to visit family.

My grandmother's hometown of Johstadt was a long way from Berlin, the seat of Hitler's Third Reich, but its conservative politics and evangelical faith made it an ideal recruiting ground for the regime's fanatical police forces - her brothers were early devotees.

Unlike her conservative relations, my grandmother was a workers' rights / union organizer, and, in the late 1920s, left Germany with her husband for a better life in America.

By summer's end in 1939, the family was scheduled to return to Detroit, but Hitler's invasion of Poland delayed their departure.

While the US Consulate tried to arrange safe passage from Germany, the girls attended the local elementary school & helped w/ the fall potato harvest.

My mom attended 1st grade, and her grammar book was called, "Fahnlein Fibel," or Little Flag Primer.

At first glance, it looked just like any other early-reader book of the time, with vowel, letter, and word lessons.

But, later pages teach the lethal propaganda of the Nazi regime - even to its littlest learners. The swastika flag - the symbol of the Nazi political party - became the national flag of Germany in 1935. This book was originally published in 1937.

Finally, in late November, the Consulate gets the family safe passage out of Germany. They travel overland to the Netherlands where they board the SS Statendam in Rotterdam, and sail for home.

Remarkably, my then 7-y/o mom packs her little primer book, & keeps it safe for the next 80 years, until her death in 2019.

Over the years, she wld bring it out to demonstrate the power of the Nazi state to convey their nationalistic messaging to every level of German society.

This thread ends here, but:
Resist extremism, tyranny, & state-sanctioned abuse & persecution of all ppl.

Speak out agst injustice & all other forms of oppression & hatred.

And support the work of @HolocaustMuseum.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is January 27, 2021.