The story of my family and why I know the horrors of fascism and fear the former President Trump.
By Rose Driver, Wife of USAF Veteran, as told to FLVCS member, Dr. J L Smith USAF Veteran
Like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, I am a 1st generation American. Trump and I were born here, while Musk is a naturalized citizen who came to this country to study and did not leave. Unlike Musk and Trump, I was not born into wealth, I endured the collective family pain of growing up with parents affected by years of brutal survival during Fascism, Communism, war and loss.
My family’s life during WWII
My family were ethnic German citizens of Czechoslovakia. During WWII, my mother’s brother was forced into slave labor in Siberia. He survived five years of brutality but returned home after the war. My father’s oldest cousin was forcibly drafted into the German Army. He died in the Battle of the Bulge. My father’s preteen sister was in a German Children’s Camp. My mother was interned by Nazis in a German workcamp when she returned home from boarding school to find that her parents had fled to Hungary to avoid the fighting. Both remained in the camps until the end of the war.
Nazis marketed these rat-infested camps, with little food, maggots, poor nutrition and lice for children and elderly as protection from the advancing Russian front and the Slovak guerrilla warfare. Both were in camps for two years. After the war, my grandparents sent my mother to Germany while they stayed behind. She spent five years with another family in war-torn Munich until the United States authorized her to immigrate. She had physical and emotional issues for the rest of her life.
Post-WWII revenge
Between May and June 1945, an estimated several hundred thousand ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia, with estimates of deaths during this period ranging from 15,000 to 30,000 according to a joint Czech-German commission of historians; the expulsions were brutal and involved widespread forced displacement of the German population following the end of World War II.
My father’s family fled for their lives during this uprising, taking only what they could carry. Their family’s home, farm, land, Gasthaus (Inn), gas station and livelihood were lost. The Slovaks executed my father’s uncle at the edge of a mass grave. His death devastated his pregnant wife and toddler. They immigrated to the Hanover, Germany area. My grandmother and 9-month pregnant aunt evacuated in a cattle railcar. My aunt went into labor in that railcar and had her baby boy in-route. Fourteen members of my father’s family escaped the horror and immigrated to America.
During the 1948 fascist Slovak uprising, supported by communist Russia, my mother’s family farm and land were taken, and centuries of their hard work were lost. Their remaining friends and family were either killed, expelled, or forever difficult.
All because of power hungry men like Hitler, Stalin, Tito, and Klement Gottwald. From the 1930s to 1950s, they caused endless death, destruction, hardship, loss and heartbreak for millions.
I grew up an American! My parents both died as Americans. They lost everything after the war but kept their freedom for themselves and future generations. Their families and friends who stayed behind were trapped behind the Iron Curtain until 1992.
Fascism in all its forms is poison. It destroys lives, countries and their future.
The fascist threat in America
Donald Trump has been identified as a fascist. General Milley and General Kelly, worked for then President Trump. Both have since named Trump as a threat to democracy and “fascist”. Trump has said he wants General Milley court-martialed and executed for his allegiance to the United States Constitution instead of Trump’s desire to reject democracy for fascism.
After he left office, Trump has continued to be in contact with his Fascist friends. He hosted Nationalist Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán at Mar-a-Lago in July; he has been in constant contact with Russian President Putin (Trump has pledged to stop aid to the democratic country of Ukraine); he is “in love’” with dictators like Kim Yong Un, the fascist dictator of North Korea, and the China dictator Xi Jinping. He also supports Israels Prime minister Netanyahu no matter his actions.
The MAGA-Nazi connection
Hitler used hatred and violence against Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witness, people with disabilities, Poles, and more to energize Germany after the harsh repercussions of WWI as scapegoats for all the world’s problems.
Trump and MAGA have clearly admired Hitler and the Nazi movement. They are using the same playbook by using immigrants, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, people of color, and women as scapegoats to build hate. Trump targets all who do not support his fascist doctrine. While he denies knowledge of Project 2025, it is the MAGA fascist playbook written by his final Whitehouse buddies. MAGA politicians are enacting Project 2025 every day in places like Florida and Texas.
Project 2025 further spells out their economic plans to control our currency by disenfranchising the Fed, deflating the US dollar, and possibly replace it with Crypto Currency. By naming Elon Musk as his Efficiency Officer, he gains power to make silent moves. Trump can further control country currencies with his new cryptocurrency business venture, World Liberty Financial, instilling his family and friends in their own national currency.
Donald Trump scares the shit out of me! He should scare the shit out of every American who loves our country, democracy, and the Constitution!