In It Together: A Conversation About Race There Must Be No Not Knowing

This editorial is the first in a series addressing race and hatred.

History teaches brutal lessons about man’s capacity to hate - and his incapacity to face the consequences of hatred. When citizens of Weimar, Germany, (shown in the photograph) were brought to see the atrocities committed at the Buchenwald concentration camp, they looked away. They said they didn’t know.

Buchenwald got special attention in 1945, not because its horrors were more plentiful or shocking than elsewhere but because it was the first Nazi camp the Allies could liberate before the retreating Germans evacuated. It was the first chance to show the world tangible, irrefutable evidence of Nazi depravity.

Fearing that the world would discount the grisly reality as propaganda-laden embellishment, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower invited the press to report on the shocking discoveries in firsthand words and graphic pictures.

Ike’s instincts were keen. Even with historic documentation, some people still deny the Holocaust.

And today, in the Inland Northwest, some would dispute the seriousness of the Hitlerian legacy embodied in the Aryan Nations church and its leader, Richard Butler. He is a man who calls the Holocaust a fraud and Hitler a hero.

Clearly, this region is not Nazi Germany, and Butler won’t kill 6 million people here. But if his hateful influence kills even one person it is intolerable. And that has already happened. Remember Alan Berg? Sam and Vicki Weaver? Bill Degan?

Only by the grace of God were there no casualties from the bombing of Bill Wassmuth’s rectory. Or the US Bank in the Spokane Valley. Or the Planned Parenthood clinic. Or The Spokesman-Review.

Although Butler’s arena is not Hitler’s world stage, we must decide how to respond to this small band of bigots and the hate parade they want to hold on July 18.

People of spirit and courage aren’t about to give Butler the confrontation that would attract an audience, but neither are they going to ignore the threat he poses.

For some, that will mean holding a separate rally to celebrate human rights. Many others will simply go about their normal affairs, modeling for their kids and neighbors a respect for human dignity.

Last week, hundreds of teenagers gathered at North Idaho College to talk frankly about racism and hatred. They left hungry for more information. Churches in Spokane and North Idaho admit it’s been a struggle even to get the discussion started. The jarring photograph on this page was published in hopes of provoking these awkward but needed conversations.

Butler’s version of bigotry has not wrought the heinous consequences that Hitler’s did but the hatred behind it is just as insidious.

If only the people of Germany had denounced the evil that curled from the crematoria chimneys.

But they said they didn’t know.