The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil

by Michael Malice

After World War II, Germany was divided by the Allies into four occupation zones: Soviet, French, American, and British. The German capital of Berlin, located entirely within the eastern Soviet zone, was itself also split into four. Though Germany was still largely in ruins, local elections were still held in the Soviet Zone in the fall of 1946. Persisting in the narrative that Soviet totalitarianism was completely the opposite of Fascist totalitarianism by every important metric, the German Communists tried to win control through democratic processes. Despite Soviet efforts, the Social Democrats were the clear victors with 49% of the vote in a three-way race. Worse, the center-right Christian Democratic Union came in second. The Communist Party was a distant third, with 20% of the vote. In no district did they come in first, not even the ones where they had had majority support before Hitler’s reign. The Russians were in a bind and took appropriate measures. That winter they began mass arrests of supposed Nazis and subversives. In practice this simply meant anyone opposed to domination from Moscow, no matter where they happened to land on the political spectrum. Then came “the People’s Police,” a further hardening of authoritarianism under the USSR’s control. Finally, the Soviets reopened the camps. Buchenwald—rechristened NKVD special camp Nr. 2—was near the city of Weimar, and Saschsenhausen—Nr. 7—a mere thirty-five kilometers from Berlin. Close to two hundred thousand ...