'Get out': Leading scholars flee Trump's US — cite lesson of Jews escaping Nazi Germany
Three Yale University professors who studied fascism have decided to flee the United States out of concern and fear — and they took their lead from the exodus of Jews as Hitler rose to power in Germany.
Speaking to the New York Times, historian Timothy Snyder, who writes extensively about tyranny and authoritarianism; historian of totalitarianism, Marci Shore; and Jason Stanley, an expert who studies fascist rhetoric, revealed they're moving abroad.
"I've been thinking about the sources of the worst kinds of history for a quarter of a century," Snyder told the Times.
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Stanley said he wants to continue to work on fascist rhetoric without fear that he'll "be punished for my words."
Shore cautioned, "The lesson of 1933 is you get out sooner rather than later."
The comment is a reference to Nazi Germany and the beginning of the Holocaust. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum addressed the question often asked: Why didn't the Jews just leave?
"Those who tried to leave had difficulty finding countries willing to take them in, especially since the Nazi regime did not allow them to take their assets out of the country," the museum posted on its site.
U.S. immigration law also limited the number of people who could enter the country, the museum stated.
"The ongoing Great Depression meant that Jews attempting to go to the United States or elsewhere had to prove they could financially support themselves. This was very difficult since Jews were being robbed by the Germans before they could leave," the site added.
Shore said many of those in her life assume that the Constitution will hold and protect them from a slide into authoritarianism.
"My colleagues and friends — they were walking around and saying, 'We have checks and balances. So let's inhale, checks and balances, exhale, checks and balances,'" recalled Shore. "And I thought, my God, we're like people on the Titanic saying our ship can't sink. We've got the best ship. We've got the strongest ship. We've got the biggest ship. Our ship can't sink.
"And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can't sink."
She also noted that "not knowing what's next creates a kind of paralysis in society."