Oath

In Hitler’s Third Reich
Personal loyalty to
Adolf Hitler was required,
Mere dedication to your
Job in the armed services,
Judiciary and civil service
Was not enough,
You had to sign a personal
Oath of loyalty to Hitler.
Can you imagine such a regime?
Where personal loyalty to the
Head of state is
More important than doing
Your job and refusal causes firing
And threats of jail time.
Where minorities were
Systematically targeted
For removal elsewhere.
Why did most go along and
Comply when feeling uneasy?
Because the bites out of liberty
Came small size one by one
Until it was too late.
What was to have been
Anyone but … the alternative,
Became a new way of life,
Less instead of more conservative
And ending in reactionary
Government gangster style.
Why did people not see
Hitler for the petulant, flawed,
Erratic loser that he was?
Because no one believed things
Could get so bad and end
In such a catastrophe.
Moderation was allowed to die,
Replaced by political party
Rhetoric and propaganda
Which replaced objective
Journalism as a new federal
Police became the enforcers.
But, that was Germany in
The 1930s and has
Nothing to do with us today.
Apples and oranges …