The level of craziness at what is going on is overwhelming. I did hear yesterday, although haven’t confirmed, is that government agencies are struggling to rehire people who were hastily let go in the last few months. It hasn’t been widespread enough news yet I guess, although a quick search confirmed that some people in the building where my dad worked are being brought back. That’s something.

One person taken out of the country has been brought back to face charges. The government leadership though is behaving horribly, speaking out in ways their ethics (as I’m told) don’t allow them to do. They are supporting their leadership, but at what cost for themselves?

I’m thinking these days about things I saw when I got to visit Europe in 2019, specifically places where the Second World War was fought between Normandy and Munich. In all of the locations (except, interestingly, Munich, we had local guides) who were all too young to remember the war, obviously, but knew their history and sometimes had gotten to talk to many veterans, holocaust survivors, even children of Nazi leaders.

Quite a few things about that trip touched me, a few surprised me. All affected the way I see things.

In Normandy is a very large American cemetery. Families of those buried there could decide whether to have their loved one returned home or buried in that cemetery (for the U.S. anyway, Great Britain didn’t offer families a choice.) Thousands of graves, administered by a U.S. agency, but adoptable by local families. They are asked to visit the grave at least once a year. That people are willing to do that over 70 years later is quite moving. Not too far from that cemetery is a smaller, much quieter cemetery for German soldiers killed during the D-Day invasion. It’s not celebrated, I don’t know how often it is visited, but it’s there, well maintained, and let be. The soldiers there are mostly very young – sometimes as young as 18 or 19. They didn’t choose their fate or have influence over it, but anyone who chooses to spend time there with them is able to.

In Bastogne, Belgium we toured the rooms that were the headquarters for the Allies during the Battle of the Bulge, that was fought nearby and for some time. Our guide was a sergeant in the Belgian army. A most colorful individual! The last room on the tour had walls filled with photos of older men. He explained that over the years whenever anyone who took the tour made it known that they were a veteran of that campaign, the barracks had a way of honoring them. The veteran was offered the opportunity to have a photo taken to put on the wall. They also received a letter commemorating their visit. There was one letter for Allied veterans and another for German veterans. Our guide explained that they didn’t care which side the person fought on “unless they were S.S. If they were S.S., they get nothing.”

Most of our visit in Germany, with the exception of one part right over the border with Belgium to see some of the Siegried Line, were to Munich and points south into the Bavarian Alps. During the war, you didn’t live in that part of Germany unless you were well on the side of Hitler and his mission. There is quite a contrast with what is left from that time that isn’t in private hands. Buildings were destroyed and sealed up lest they turn into shrines to a defeated regime. People who made the choice to be and stay with that regime paid a very high price after the war ended. Sometimes with their lives, and secret burial so nobody including their families know where that is.

It was an interesting look at where and what people remembered and honored, and how an individual’s agency in decision making affects their place in history.

I saw a little of the president’s visit to Fort Bragg a few days ago – in front of young soldiers proud to be there but behaving not in a way that soldiers are supposed to in uniform. That’s on their leaders who can’t or won’t instruct them differently. I fear for the soldiers and who they might grow into. I fear for the ICE agents and others who are told to do things that look awful now and probably won’t look any less awful in the lens of history.

Everyone with a hand in making happen everything that’s going on right now – at whatever level – is hopefully going to have an opportunity someday to look back on what they did. Those of us living around them will hopefully have an opportunity to hear about their experiences.

Behavior I view as utterly shameful is really hundreds or thousands of individuals with their own stories, backgrounds, motivation, and agency or lack thereof to influence their choices.

I hope I get to see at least a little of what comes of all this and am able to separate out people’s behavior, agency and choices in a similar way that I saw on my trip.