My parents were German—my father Jewish, my mother Protestant. Their families were strong supporters of the democratic Weimar Republic established after the First World War and were strongly anti-Communist and anti-Nazi.
In 1931, two years before Hitler came to power, my father, foreseeing the collapse of civilized government in Germany, persuaded his parents to emigrate with him. But his sister Lotte, a naïve woman who incapable of believing anyone could be so evil as to want to harm her, refused to join them in France until 1934.
My mother, a Protestant as yet unmarried, was not in danger and remained in Germany. But she refused to obey the ban on Protestants shopping at Jewish-owned stores until that became too dangerous. Then she slipped across the border to France in 1936. The very next day the Gestapo came to arrest her for her resistance to the "New Order." (Her mother was once saved from arrest for her anti-Hitler remarks only because neighbors lied on her behalf.)
In 1939, violating Nazi race laws carried the death penalty. Nevertheless, my parents married in France. When the Germans conquered France in 1940 they escaped again. They and many like them survived the War only because they could recognize evil, fought it as long as they could, and escaped when that became necessary.
But naïve Aunt Lotte refused to leave her village in what was now Nazi-occupied France, believing that as a law abiding German, no fellow German would bother her. She duly registered her domicile with Nazi officials and lived peacefully in the town of Bains Les Bains. According to neighbors interviewed after the War, she was very happy being able to speak German to Occupation troops, and they were very nice to her.
Then one morning before dawn in November 1942 the Krauts rousted her out of bed, sent her to the infamous transit camp at Drancy and, according to the Germans' own precise records, on November 11, 1942 put her on Transport # 42 and shipped her to Auschwitz.
Nothing further of her is known, but from what we know of her it is likely she remained innocent and docile right to the moment she was herded into the gas chambers.
Aunt Lotte was a collaborator in her own death. Not actively of course, but—like millions of others—her refusal to wake up and resist allowed Hitler to commit the mass murder of which she became a victim.
In America today we've got a lot of Aunt Lottes, and the modern threat they refuse to recognize is the massive invasion of illegal aliens. But there's an important difference between my Aunt Lotte and many of her modern counterparts: the latter aren't just passive, they are militant activists in the promotion of this evil. They "collaborate" with this invasion, just as quislings all over Occupied Europe collaborated with the Nazis. Their collaboration has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans at the hands of criminal aliens—including my own son, who died on 9/11—and the permanent physical, emotional and financial ruin of hundreds of thousands of others.
You'll find these collaborators in control of the religious groups which form an essential part of the Illegal Alien Lobby. They include the United Church of Christ (Rev. Jeremiah Wright's outfit); United Methodists; Quakers; Unitarians; Presbyterian Church; and, influenced by the radicals who have infiltrated its bureaucracy, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Church.
Sadly, among the collaborators are Jews, especially members of the liberal Reform Jewish organizations such as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Typical of these is the so-called "Anti-Defamation League" which mocks its own name by defaming as "racist" anyone who dares oppose illegal immigration. Considering the vicious anti-Semitism of the Moslems and many of the Hispanics taking advantage of our open borders it appears that these American Jews are just as eager as Aunt Lotte to conspire in their own disappearance.
These religious types are distinct from the cynical crowd in Congress, La Raza, US Chamber of Commerce, ACLU, or the Communist Party who support illegal immigration for reasons of financial or political profit. The people in these churches are Believers.
They, like Aunt Lotte, know only what they want to know. They do not care that illegal immigration results in suffering and death for innocent Americans as the result of violent crimes. They are fanatics who, having convinced themselves they are doing God's work, feel entitled to ignore or justify the violence and death that results from following what they see as The Holy Word.
It used to be said that the Episcopal Church was the Republican Party at prayer. But study the website of the Episcopal Church and you'll see that this should be updated: "The Episcopal Church is the Far Left at prayer."
Except for the God talk, these religious denominations are near clones of the ACLU, Center for American Progress, or MoveOn.org. Name the political issue and these politicized churches have a position on it and a lobbying effort nearly always identical to that of the Far Left. They have a fanatical adherence to this radical political agenda and the zeal to spread the Revealed Word through political activism.
Don't take my word for it; look at their websites: United Church of Christ, www.ucc.org; www.episcopalchurh.org; Quakers, www.afsc.org; United Methodists, www.umc.org; www.uua.org; Union of Reform Judaism, www.urj.org; Presbyterian church USA, www.pcusa.org.
About that last URL: for if you type in "www.CPUSA" instead of "www.PCUSA" you'll get the Communist Party USA instead of the Presbyterian Church USA. However, not to worry; the mistake isn't serious, since on most issues there isn't much difference.
On those websites under the letter "I" you'll see "Immigration," or "Immigrants' (sic) Rights." There you'll see the Religious Left does acknowledge that the United States has a right to have borders, but for these people the full extent of that "right" is to put a line on a map; there appears to be not a single concrete step they support that would in any other sense create a border between the US and Mexico.
Increased enforcement? Nope, God's against it. More Border Patrol officers? No; that's against the will of God. A fence? No, God is opposed to walls. Denying to any illegal alien benefits such as access to jobs, housing etc.? No; the word from God is that this is wrong.
And they have it on good authority that God favors amnesty for all.
It's a curious thing. According to the ACLU, a kid can't say his prayers in school, because that breaches the wall between church and state. However, the ACLU seems to have no concerns whatsoever about that "wall" when it comes to liberal churches lobbying.
We could dismiss these people as easily as Aunt Lotte ignored the forces of darkness that gathered around her. But to do so is just as dangerous for us as it was for her.
I can tell you from personal experience that these people lobby. They are lobbying Congress, the legislatures, the city councils, county commissions. They probably have their lobbyists at meetings of sewer commissions. And always for more benefits and "rights" for illegals.
Speak to the Religious Left of the victims of violent crimes committed by illegal aliens or "legal" aliens improperly allowed to enter the US due to the failure to enforce our laws (for example the 9/11 terrorists) and you cannot pierce the wall of denial, the faith that Open Borders are more important than the murder victims, the rape victims, the gang victims, drug distribution.
It matters not to them that real people are the victims of real violence by people from other countries. These Church people speak of "human rights" and "social justice," but by their actions they demonstrate their belief that these concepts do not apply to innocent Americans.
Until a few decades ago such a large percentage of Americans were members of these "mainline" denominations that their numbers made these churches an influential part of American life.
But those days are long gone. As radicals such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ assumed leadership positions and pushed the churches far to the left, membership fell drastically.
Still, though their membership in large part abandoned them for more conservative denominations the radical leadership inherited control of vast untaxed wealth provided by earlier members who would be appalled by the causes their money supports today. That money will remain the source of great power in the hands of the Jeremiah Wright as these churches recruit new members from among the illegal alien population they have helped to import.
Americans have a choice. They can either resist like, my parents. Or they can ignore reality like my Aunt Lotte.
We know what path Reform Jews and liberal Protestant sects are following.
Time will tell what the rest of America will do.
Peter Gadiel (email him) is president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. His son, 9/11 World Trade Center victim James Gadiel (North Tower, 103rd floor), was 23 at the time of his murder.
