Night and Fog Has Come To America

'Nacht und Nebel' was a German decree with the goal of making Nazi resisters disappear. The Trump Regime is advancing their own version.

Photo by Ed Hinchliffe on Unsplash

On December 7th, 1941, Hitler issued a decree code named “Nacht und Nebel”, or Night and Fog. The name came from the work of the celebrated German poet and playwright, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who used the phrase to describe clandestine events that happened under the cover of darkness. The order, signed by Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Staff of the German Army, took the code name to heart in setting a policy that allowed the Nazi Party to simply make anyone disappear in order to create fear among the rest of the population.

The decree was aimed at suppressing resistance movements as Germany sought to conquer all of Europe. If an individual in an occupied territory was deemed to be a political activist, or a “helper” of the resistance they were arrested and immediately deported to Germany. There would be a sham of a hearing, conducted in secret. This was often done in the cover of night. The fog portion comes into play, by keeping the public and families from knowing of the arrest or the fate of those deemed to be “endangering” German security.

There was no legal basis for this move, under German law at the time. In fact, it was designed to skirt the few laws that still existed after Hitler seized power. Much like the Trump regime today, the Third Reich mandated that any rule or law that they deemed cumbersome or unnecessary, was to simply be ignored. Up until the issuance of ‘Nacht un Nebel’, Germany had still been operating under rules laid out in agreements such as the Geneva Convention. This would drastically change under the new policy.

On July 30, 1944 the Night and Fog campaign would be expanded. It would cover all acts against the German forces by non-German citizens as an act of terrorism. A month later, it would be expanded again to include any act deemed “against German interests”. If those suspected of crimes under this decree were not executed on sight, they were sent to concentration camps in Germany regardless of where the act had occurred.

Once someone was detained, they were often transported hundreds of kilometers away, to be held. Once in the camps, the detainees' heads were shaved, and they were given thin and lightweight clothing, marked with a NN to signify that unlike other prisoners, they were arrested as part of the new campaign. They were woken daily at 5:00 am, and forced to stand at attention, often in wet and freezing conditions, before beginning a 12 hour day of hard labor. Those who became too sick or tired to work were presumably sent to extermination camps. (I can not help but be struck by the description of the conditions back then and the videos put out by the Trump Regime of detainees sent to El Salvador.)

To date, there is no accurate accounting of how many people were taken in the cover of darkness, never to be heard from again. There have been nearly 7,000 people confirmed to have been abducted and disappeared in this way. However, most historians agree that this number is far from accurate, and believe that thousands more have simply never been accounted for at all. The Reich coined a term to describe them, “vernebelt” or, ‘transformed into mist’. It was if they had never existed at all.

The United States under the current Trump regime is living through its own version of ‘Nacht und Nebel’. While there are some striking differences between what the regime is doing and what Keitel did over 80 years ago, use of covert means and confusion to hide atrocities is nearly identical. The purposeful disappearances are chillingly identical.

First came the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, and his immediate detainment in a Louisiana facility, even though he was arrested in New Jersey. There was no reason for the move, other than for the regime to show that it could make people disappear, even if only for a few days.

Then came the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, and subsequent arrests of anyone of Venezuelan origin they could find. Of course the regime called them gang members, often confusing tattoos, including one for autism awareness as indication of gang affiliation. Much like the secret hearings the Nazi’s held, the names on the list were added in secret meetings and passed down to the ICE troops who carried out the orders without question.

Next came the arrest of Tufts University PhD student, Rumeysa Ozturk. She was taken captive in Massachusetts, and immediately transported to Louisiana. After being abducted by ICE agents in masks and plainclothes, she was told she was being detained because she had “engaged in activities to support Hamas”. No charges had been filed against her, and while her visa was revoked, she had not yet been notified at the time of her detainment. It took immigration lawyers two days to determine that she was in custody at all. When they finally were able to confirm she was in a detention facility, the database failed to list what facility she was being held in.

Yesterday, news broke that an asylum seeker had been “mistakenly” sent to El Savador and was being detained in the notorious CECOT prison. Albrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, who fled due to threats of violence from the gang MS-13, was originally detained under suspicion of being a gang member. The evidence included the fact he was wearing a hoodie and Chicago Bulls baseball cap and the word of an unnamed informant claiming that he was a member of MS-13. A judge disagreed. While, according to court filings, Garcia could still be deported, it made note to indicate that deportation back to his home country of El Salvador was not an option. So how did he end up there? He wasn’t on the original flight manifest. It was only after a second judge ordered the removal of another passenger from the deportation flight, that he was moved up the list and put on the plane. While this “administrative error” is horrifying enough, it does get worse. His wife, who last spoke to him the day before the flight, found out her husband was being held in CECOT because she recognized in him photos released by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele’s regime of the prisoners it taken into custody. The United States government is refusing to intervene for his release.

These are just the stories that have hit the news. How many more exist? Much like those who combed through the records from ‘Nacht und Nebel’, we may never know.

The goal of ‘Nacht und Nebel’ was simple; Get rid of dissension and sow fear among a populace. The Trump regime's version is accomplishing that as well. Masked men with no identification, abducting and loading people onto planes to be sent a thousand miles away, while their families frantically search for them isn’t about keeping America safe. It isn’t about terrorism. It isn’t even about immigration. It is about using fear to control a population.

The truth is that, in moves that echo that of Nazi Germany, the Trump regime is also expanding it’s original plans. During the campaign, we were told it was about deporting the “criminals”. They made sure to highlight that the priority would be rapists, violent gang members and murderers. But, we all assumed that making it a priority would still fall under the rule of law. Then we realized that there would be no trials; a suspension of the fundamental right to due process. The regime then began defying judicial orders. Sending those covered under the modern era ‘Night and Fog’ to a country thousands of miles away, and which many had never been before, to be detained in what the world has often described as concentration camp like conditions.

Finally we discovered that many were not meant to be on the flight at all. A woman and child were sent back, after El Salvador refused to accept them. Others were simply Venezuelan and sent to El Salvador under contract. Next the regime began to target those who spoke out against US policies. Labeling them as terrorists, grabbing them off the street and sending them across multiple states to be held without any documentation they were being held at all, until days after they had been taken.

Then they began to label those who boycott a car company as “domestic terrorists”. Attorney General Pam Bondi has made it known that any act against Tesla will be charged as such. Bondi is also seeking terrorism charges and the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of shooting the United Health Care CEO in December, 2024. There is a fine line between recognizing crimes and creating false charges to further a political agenda. That line is being steadily erased by the Trump regime.

The ever expanding list of “crimes” that are being labeled “against American interest”, in furtherance of our “enemies”, or against the rhetoric of the regime, making it a “threat to national security” should be just as concerning as the willingness of the regime to make people disappear.

Yes. We are living under an American version of Night and Fog. The needle has shifted from “it can’t happen here” to a new reality. It is happening here. While we may not be able to stop it, we have the duty to talk about it as openly as possible. Unlike those in Nazi Germany, many whose fate was only discovered in the years following the war through journals, it is up to us to give those who become victims of this current regime a voice. It is our duty as human beings to not allow those who are being systematically tried on charges that do not fit the crime, or are detained on suspicion and deported without due process be forgotten or to be “transformed into mist”.

Ignoring it is what the Germans did. The few who didn’t ignore it recorded it in hidden journals or spoke about it hush tones. If there is any lesson to be learned from the horrors of the past, it is that silence should not be an option. Hushed tones and carefully concealed writings will not save us. It did not save the people under Nazi control from the horrors of ‘Nacht un Nebel’. Silence will not save us from the American Night and Fog.

We have seen this film before. We know how it ended all those years ago.

It is because of that knowledge that we have the power to write a new ending.

We can begin to re-write the story by talking about disappearances and arrests loudly and out in the open. Scream it from the rooftops. Post the names, and dates of every state sanctioned kidnapping and disappearance as often as you can.

The only way to push back against the night and the fog is to become a beacon which shines a never ceasing light on the atrocities being carried out in the name of our nation.

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As always, thank you for reading! — Courtney