Connecticut Council of Poets Laureate |
SOUTHBURY, CT, DEFEATS LOCAL NAZIS IN 1937 by Sandy Lee Carlson I. Invoking the Muses Hear the voices of Southbury’s leaders Recalled for their moral courage at a dangerous time. Preaches the Reverend Felix Manley Of Southbury Federated Church: “Un-American inhabitants can Not tear down what has been built so slowly At so much cost.”1 Insists Jennie Hinman, The town’s leading citizen and oldest Taxpayer: “The display of emblems indicating Allegiance to a foreign power on Public roads or streams in this community Shall be prohibited.”2 Resolves the Reverend M.E.N. Lindsay Of the South Britain Congregational Church: “I am compelled by the nature of my office To warn my people of the evil consequences Of such movements, and to this end, Must address myself at the time of discourse During the Sunday morning worship hour.”3 II. Southbury Lays Down the Law Consider this response to well-placed words: Well-organized Yankees lift their voices To defend rural Southbury–their home– From American Nazis’ gaining ground In Kettletown, by calling constables To stop Nazi camp construction on a Sunday in 1937. First, blue laws; next, new-cast zoning policies Protect a farming people at peace With hard-won freedom, inherited truths That make no way for hatred’s marching tunes. Southbury makes the rules, then plays by them: No training camp for fascist families here. The lesson: Know what you stand for; then, stand. Community thrives when respect for law Frees every citizen from hatred’s thrall. III. Postscript After the slaughter of European Jews and the leveling of landscapes, Eleanor Roosevelt warns us to learn: “We let our consciences realize too late The need of standing up against something We knew was wrong. I hope in the future, We are going to remember that there Can be no compromise at any point With the things we know are wrong.”4 Learn it: “Those who treat life as their toy, death as their Tool, if these men be immune, the law has lost Its meaning and we must all live in fear.”5 What will you do when the menace draws near? IV. Antiphon An elderly Jewish survivor Recalls this pivotal childhood moment When he fled Hitler’s war for a new world: “The fog lifted, and there it was after all: The Statue of Liberty, After all, after all, I see it all Now, after all these years, The taste of freedom, here.”6 1 “Elderly Woman Helped rid Southbury of Nazis in 1937,” Republican-American. 11 November 2012. archives.rep-am.com/2012/11/11/elderly-woman-helped-rid-southbury-of-nazis-in-1937/. Accessed 11November 2022. 2 ibid. 3 Lindsay, M.E.N. Letter to the Editor of the Republican-American. 18 November 1937. EHRI Project, EU. portal.ehri-project.eu/.collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn90002#?rsc=144123&cv=4&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-133%2C954%2C5009%2C3281. Accessed 11 November 22. 4 "Speech before Women's Division of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York ." Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Volume 1. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Nov. 2022, 5 Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz in his closing argument at the Nuremberg Trials 6 Survivor Joseph Hilsenrath in Ken Burns’s 2022 documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust. |
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