Dmitry Novitsky, “This is 1937. Or 1942, it makes very little difference. They abduct selectively, but in vast numbers”

28 August 2020 |  Telegraph

A well-known Belarusian journalist is talking about what we are all going through.

“I live like I’m in a book. I definitely did not think that I would live to see the Holocaust,” writes Dmitry Novitsky. “I definitely didn’t think that I would live to see 1937. And I didn’t think that the country that suffered most from fascism would plunge into fascism in 2020.

Fear is sticky, it’s true, I got that. It fetters you, you sweep the yard, and with every move you overcome fear. Fear paralyzes your muscles. There is only commonplace and lousy joy – they took away someone else, not you…

This is 1937. Or 1942, it makes very little difference. They abduct selectively, but in vast numbers. And instead of each person, there is fear left. A funnel of fear that you are the next one. It is ironic, but the arguments are the same – discontent with the state system, participation in something. Now they use the following wording during the arrest – “incorrectly dressed”.

And all this is happening in 2020.

Reading textbooks, reading books, I could not understand why the Jews did not leave immediately. Why didn’t they defend themselves? I found the answer in 2020 – because it is difficult for an educated person to imagine that everything can go so far. There is no law, it is violated every day. There is no truth, because there are tons of lies around your gram of truth. And they constantly abduct, taking people away … Moloch on duty, joyful reports on TV, while in fact it is terror.

Who is next? Who will be locked up tomorrow?

Now they themselves give advice to leave. Will there be a ghetto tomorrow?

I don’t know who cursed our land. Why is the country, which suffered most from fascism, experiencing fascism again? It seemed to me that after the film “Come and See” this will never happen.

And this is happening in real time. Here. Now. In the centre of Europe.

The country itself devours its children.

All of us will have to talk about this trauma, admit it, repent publicly. As the Germans spoke out loud and went through the events of the Second World War, so we will need to recognize and live through the genocide of our own people.

Until then, fear. It comforts me to know that we are 97%. And that means they won’t burn everyone in their stoves.

The desire for freedom will definitely not be taken away. In history, fascism has never won.”