Will it never happen again?Lessons from Dachau for Ukraine

Dachau is difficult to visit, but not just for the reasons you might think.

In the first concentration camp founded by Hitler in 1932, the horrors of the Holocaust are clearly and unsparingly on display. You can’t help but tremble in fear as you enter the gas chamber and then head to the adjacent crematorium. The Nazis’ murder plans were chillingly efficient, at least until they ran out of coal for their ovens and had to resort to burying their torture victims in mass graves.

It is also difficult for German schoolchildren to visit Dachau, as they are required to go to a concentration camp before graduating from high school. Some schools ask students to forego breakfast on the day of the visit, believing that even this minor discomfort can encourage greater empathy for those who experienced the full horrors of the Holocaust. On a recent Monday I visited, literally hundreds of students were touring Dachau in groups of about 20 under the supervision of teachers. They were dressed like high school students and showed varying levels of interest in the lessons being taught, which is what I expected from my American peers. After all, they treated the day with the seriousness it deserved.

I applaud the German government for enacting a policy that requires all students to learn this bitter part of their country’s history. Indeed, every country would benefit from such public scrutiny of its worst acts. A monument with the words “Never Again” written in several languages ​​is appropriate.

Unfortunately, the horrors recorded at the National Monument at Dachau are now happening again, hundreds of miles to the east. Russia’s unwarranted invasion of Ukraine was followed by the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, the rape, torture, and murder of Ukrainian civilians, a tragic echo of the Nazi techniques honed at Dachau. It is a bitter irony that Russian President Vladimir Putin is replicating the tactics of Ukrainians while calling them Nazis.

I arrived in Dachau on my way to attend a NATO conference sponsored by the German government to assess the progress of the Russian war in Ukraine, where Russian aggression has become a wake-up call. A NATO general said he could never have imagined another full-scale war in Europe in his lifetime, but it did and Europe faced dramatic increases in defense spending and was left in dire straits. We responded with economic and military support to our brave neighbors. The amount will reach approximately $80 billion. The United States similarly provides vital aid to Ukraine, much of it in the form of weapons that would enable the proud nation’s defenders to confront a larger aggressor. Incredibly, however, America’s support for Ukraine is currently wavering. Congress left Washington for the holidays without committing to funding for further assistance to Ukraine in its fair and courageous fight for freedom.

As a veteran of the U.S. Army of two wars and a long-time student of international relations, I believe that America, for all its faults, is one of the best countries the world has ever seen in justice, democracy, and peace. I strongly believe that it was the greatest force that made this possible. I am appalled that America would abandon a small country fighting fascism in 21st century Europe.

It hurts to talk about it, but there are many tragedies. Majorities in both houses of Congress appear to support additional military aid to Ukraine. The Biden administration has stood firm and led the world in its efforts to help Ukraine, but in recognition of Congress’s failures, it stopped saying it would help Ukraine for as long as necessary. President Biden can currently only promise that the United States will assist Ukraine in any way possible.

Let me be clear: We can afford to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom forever. The United States has committed about $75 billion to Ukraine, much of it for weapons that were past their use-by dates and were slated for destruction. It is literally cheaper to ship these weapons to Ukraine for use in defending freedom than it is to destroy them here in the United States. On the other hand, replacing them in inventory would provide American jobs and at the same time make America’s military more ready for the next war.

Spending perhaps 5 percent of the U.S. defense budget over the past two years, Ukrainian soldiers armed with U.S. weapons have destroyed more than half of the Russian military’s capabilities. Russia is now the greatest proven threat to world peace and security, Putin’s dreams of restoring the Soviet empire are unlikely to stop at Ukraine’s borders, and America has no plans to be next in line after Putin. Helping Ukraine save American lives and dollars, given its treaty obligations to protect certain NATO countries. Supporting Ukraine, on the other hand, would maintain the rules-based international order that the United States built after World War II and produced the longest period of great power peace and economic development in history.

Congress should visit Dachau in January. German school children will make room for them. Our representatives can see what fascism looks like and, looking east, decide whether to let it happen again.

John Nagle is a professor of war studies at the United States Army War College. This article expresses his own views and not those of the U.S. Military War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.