U.S. no longer a haven for the politically persecuted

The so-called Land of the Free has become increasingly hostile towards academics, critics and those deemed not patriotic enough

Once upon a not-so-distant time, the United States offered a lifeline to political, union and academic leaders as well as other influential individuals such as writers and artists who had become targets of the Nazis and were desperately fleeing persecution. 

In 1940, a private American organization that branded itself as the Emergency Rescue Committee – later to become the International Rescue Committee – embarked on a daring but noble mission to help such refugees who were trapped in Vichy France to escape the expanding grip of Hitler’s fascists who sought to crush their critics and silence all dissent.

I’ve recently been reading my way through a book called The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground – a memoir written by Justus (pronounced Yustus) Rosenberg – who was an adolescent on the cusp of adulthood studying in Paris when the Third Reich’s armies began their blitzkrieg that would plunge Europe into the Second World War. 

Born in 1921 to a well-off reform Jewish family in what was then the Free City of Danzig – now Gdansk in Poland – Rosenberg’s parents eventually came to feel he would be safer off in France amid heightened tensions and animosity against Jewish people, especially after the Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935.

Little could they have known when they sent him in 1937 what the future had in store.

When France was invaded and her armies quickly routed in 1940, Rosenberg knew he couldn’t stay in Paris.

Initially attempting to enlist with the French army, he was deemed ineligible due to his status and instead directed to sign up with the Poles. But by the time he’d reached the staging area he’d been told to go to – itself no easy task amid a flood of refugees in a country under siege – the Polish stationed there had already withdrawn on a flotilla headed to England. 

Eventually making his way to Marseille, which following the French government’s capitulation would become the unofficial capital of the unoccupied zone, Rosenberg remained uncertain as to his next steps but decided the city offered him the best chance at obtaining visas necessary to leave the country if it came to it. 

That was where he met people who played an instrumental role in shaping his destiny. Through these connections, he was offered an opportunity to work with an American by the name of Varian Fry, who had been sent by the Emergency Rescue Committee to help anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees. 

Although I’m as of writing this only about half way through Rosenberg’s compelling memoir and have yet to learn more about his involvement with the French Resistance, I found myself profoundly struck by his selfless willingness to oppose Hitler and Nazi rule any way he could. 

But what also stood out to me was how tragically far America has fallen since those days. 

Whereas an organization like the Emergency Rescue Committee was once formed in the U.S. to help people escape political persecution, the country under its current government has now debased itself by devolving into what it once stood against by targeting critics and attempting to silence dissent.

The United States of America, once a bastion of freedom of expression and a beacon of intellectual pursuits that led to major scientific advancements and paved the way for humankind to set foot on the moon, seems to have become increasingly hostile towards academics and pretty well anyone who is arbitrarily deemed not quite patriotic enough or who dares to question or criticize Dear Leader.

Some Ivy league university professors are even fleeing the country. 

And several countries have issued travel advisories to their citizens warning them that failure to have paperwork in proper order could lead to sudden detentions that in some instances has included solitary confinement.

All of this would not too long ago have seemed unimaginable in the so-called Land of the Free.

Yet hope shines eternal, and the inspiring example of perseverance set by people like Rosenberg so many decades ago still demonstrates what decent people can accomplish when they work together despite otherwise seemingly overwhelming odds. 

Already, large crowds have been gathering across the U.S. to rally against the rule of a few billionaires, and GOP representatives are being urged to avoid town halls under the evidence-free claim that outraged constituents are actually paid protestors.  

Scapegoating the “woke hive mind virus” for the very real economic problems people face will only carry the GOP so far.

As the working class continues to struggle while a handful of centi-billionaires race to become trillionaires amid what will undoubtedly eventually come to be known as the Second Gilded Age, both Republicans and Democrats best pay heed to shifting attitudes or face the will of voters at the ballot box in the 2026 midterms.

Or at this rate, perhaps even in the streets.

For all the U.S. president's rhetoric about restoring free speech, the American government has become increasingly hostile towards academics, critics and pretty well anybody deemed not patriotic enough. (Photo courtesy of Rod Long via Unsplash)