BY ANDREW FRASER
Los Alamos

I write in response to “Thomas Graves: Life Imitates Art”.  I thank Thomas Graves for writing it and The Reporter for publishing it.  I have been struck by the parallels between current events and the events of 1933 in Germany.  The current administration is aggressively neutralizing any independent source of knowledge, authority or power. Targets include the legal profession, the medical profession, journalism, universities, the Federal Reserve, the Civil Service, the Foreign Service, and science.

Yesterday, I sent the following email with the subject “What are they thinking in Los Alamos?” to the surviving members of my high school class in Texas:

What to you think of this?
https://losalamosreporter.com/2025/04/20/thomas-graves-life-imitates-art/

    It’s considered poor taste to invoke Hitler, Nazis and or the
    Holocaust casually.  I agree.  Is the linked article therefore in
    bad taste?  The juxtaposition of the two photos is powerful.

    My answer is that it tastes bad, but that the terrifying parallels
    to 1933 are really here.

This morning, I heard from Chris for the first time in 55 years.  He
wrote in part:

    “You have put the issue in front of us in a way that makes it more
    intimate, yet done it with curiosity, and courteously. The article
    is not in bad taste. It is the right way forward.

    “No one can–any longer–pose that unimaginative question:

    “How could the German people, educated, cultured, and democratic,
    support Adolf Hitler?”

    “I suggest that anyone who still wonders how the Third Reich
    happened should look around, and see for themselves. Perhaps, by
    juxtaposing photos.

    “It is, at times, maddening and frustrating, at others, depressing,
    to feel incapable of meaningful direct action at this point of
    inflection.”

Thanks again to The Reporter and Thomas Graves for starting the
conversation.  I hope that it leads to meaningful direct action.