Only the Beautiful

by Susan Meissner

“And you think that excuses you? That you were just following orders? My God, Johannes. You objected to nothing, you challenged nothing! Not even when your commander shouted over the phone that your own daughter was a monkey! Every Nazi order you obeyed furthered their cause. Don’t you see it? Every time you said nothing, you were saying you agreed with them. Every time you did nothing to stop the madness, you were pushing it forward!”

As difficult as it is, "I was just following orders" is no excuse. Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode "Death's Head Revisited." The fact that Johannes can't see it, or doesn't want to, or isn't ready to right now, is both infuriating and chilling.

“Don’t talk to me about the Nazi brand of mercy,”

Yes, because their mercy was no mercy at all. This is one of those things where I would've cut him off and said, "No. Don't you even *start* that with me."

I wanted to hit Johannes; I wanted to hold him. I wanted to scream at him; I wanted to soothe him. I wanted to find every doctor who’d tortured the children at Am Steinhof and every nurse who’d stood by and helped and cut them down with a sword. I wanted to push them into hell myself.

My sentiments exactly, Helen. As for pushing that bunch into hell...want some help? Okay, so I doubt Jesus would let me do that. He'd likely give me the same lecture He gave the Sons of Thunder and I would deserve it. Still, do not tempt me!

We all should have fought back the moment the Nazis first showed us what they wanted. What they hated. Every good person everywhere should have.”

Yes. Every decent person on this Earth should have. And the fact that we didn't...well, history took care of the rest. We're still paying for it. God help us all.

It was stopped when the rest of the world finally said, ‘No more.’ But we waited too long. We should have said ‘no’ at the very beginning. There shouldn’t have been a ‘more.’ We waited too long.”

"We waited too long." *shudder.* Just...I cannot even *deal.* You never know if you waited too long, until you already did. And by then...

It’s still taking place because there is a way of thinking that allows for it. This kind of thinking, that one person can say he or she is a better human than another, is not only cruel, it is dangerous. I saw with my own eyes what can happen when this way of thinking flourishes without restraint.”

A to the MEN. All day. I didn't have to see it, but I know it. And even now, people tell me things like, "Calm down. It's not that serious. It could never, will never again, happen in America. Disabled people are loved and safe and cared for." And I'm just like, "Okay. That may be truer than it was once. But what about what people don't say? What about when people slip and say the quiet part out loud? What about who you are in the dark, when nobody's looking? What about the parents you applaud for unaliving their kids because those disabilities were 'too severe?' Yeah, and I'm the one who's crazy?"

A book is always in many places at once. That is its singular wonder. A book takes one voice speaking and makes it many. A book can shine far brighter and longer than I ever could on my own.

And that. That is why we tell stories. That is why we write books. That is why I do what I do and why all authors do what we do.