FAKE NORMAL

 

“Gaslighting is an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true…. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity. Over time, a Gaslighter’s manipulations can grow more complex and potent, making it increasingly difficult for the victim to see the truth.”[1]

Corrie ten Boom[2]

 

Personal Testimony 

Fifty years ago (1971) Corrie ten Boom wrote The Hiding Place[3]
describing her family’s work in the Dutch Resistance during WWII saving
the lives of Jewish people by hiding them in their unusual home. For
this “crime” Corrie was sent to a concentration camp. 

 

Corrie’s
testimony would directly impact my life in 1976 when I recommitted my
life to Jesus Christ. At this pivotal moment in my life Corrie ten Boom
came to town. I followed her from venue to venue hungry to hear her
message based on hope, forgiveness and the simplicity of the Gospel. But
she also warned the church, sometimes quite sharply, to prepare us for the
days that lay ahead. 

 

Corrie proclaimed to the church in America that things were not as they seemed.
Already in 1976 she could discern a cloud of darkness coming into the
land. And she mentioned something significant that I filed away in my
brain for future reference. She said that within six short weeks after the Nazis imposed
their Regime over Holland that life changed dramatically. Outwardly
most things appeared normal, but there were insidious signs of a new
normal. 

 

I
would spend the next four and a half decades of my life watching the dark clouds
as they arose. I would speak about the threatening clouds, write about them, and publish warnings about the impending storm. Meanwhile, I was awaiting with an inexplicable foresight that day that would
mark the beginning of the six weeks that Corrie had described.  

Exhibit 1: Note the last sentence

Exhibit 2: Deadly fake science in an earlier Regime

~ Patrick Wood [4]

 

Now of course, well, people weren’t laughing about Germany. Most of the good clocks came from there, and recently several firms with whom we had dealt for years were simply and mysteriously “out of business.” Willem believed it was part of a deliberate and large-scale move against Jews; every one of the closed businesses was Jewish.(p. 29) 

 

And at that moment Willem entered the room. Behind him came Tine, his wife, and their four children. But every eye in the room had settled on the figure whose arm Willem held in his. It was a Jew in his early thirties in the typical broad-brimmed black hat and long black coat. What glued every eye to this man was his face. It had been burned. In front of his right ear dangled a gray and frazzled ringlet, like the hair of a very old man. The rest of his beard was gone, leaving only a raw and gaping wound….

“He got out of Germany on a milk truck,” Willem told us rapidly in Dutch. “They stopped him on a streetcorner—teen-aged boys in Munich—set fire to his beard.” (p. 30) 

 

And so the shadows fell across us that winter afternoon in 1937, but it rested lightly. Nobody dreamed that this tiny cloud would grow until it blocked out the sky. And nobody dreamed that in this darkness each of us would be called to play a role: Father and Betsie and Mr. Kan and Willem—even the funny old Beje with its unmatching floor levels and ancient angles….

I knew that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.”(p. 31) 

 

Exhibit 3: We were told it would be resolved in 5 weeks!

Exhibit 4: 1940

 

“War.” (p. 79) 

Exhibit 5: The New York Times covers up the Holocaust

 

Exhibit 6: First the velvet glove… then…

The curfew too, at first, was no hardship for us, since it was originally set at 10:00 P.M., long after we were indoors in any case. What we did object to were the identity cards each citizen was issued. These small folders containing photograph and fingerprints had to be produced on demand. A solider or a policeman—the Haarlem police were now under the direct control of the German Commandant—might stop a citizen at any time and ask to see his card; it had to be carried in a pouch about the neck. We were issued ration cards, too, but at least that first year, the coupons represented food and merchandize actually available in the stores. Each week the newspapers announced what the current coupons could be exchanged for.

That was another thing it was hard to adjust to—newspapers that no longer carried news. Long glowing reports of the successes of the German army on its various fronts. Eulogies of German leaders, denunciations of traitors and saboteurs, appeals for the unity of the “Nordic peoples.” But not news that we could trust.

And so we depended again on the radio. Early on in the occupation, Haarlemers were ordered to turn in all private sets. Realizing it would look strange if our household produced none at all, we decided to turn in the portable and hide the larger, more powerful instrument in one of the many hollow spaces beneath the old twisting staircase.(p. 82) 

 

Like most private telephones ours had been disconnected early in the occupation.(p. 87) 

 

POWER OUTAGES

The power grid goes down. Electricity is rationed. People live in the dark. 

 

The
evening’s activity had to be kept brief because the city now had
electricity only a short while each night, and candles had to be hoarded
for emergencies.(p. 124) 

 

Exhibit 7: Street violence an effective strategy

 

 

Exhibit 8: Identification for extermination

Exhibit 9: A table of marks to identify targeted groups

 

Worst were the disappearances. A watch, repaired and ready, hanging on its hook in the back of the shop, month after month. A house in Nollie’s block mysteriously deserted, grass growing in the rose garden. One day Mr. Kan’s shop up the street did not open….

We never knew whether these people had been spirited away by the Gestapo or gone into hiding before this could happen. Certainly public arrests, with no attempt to conceal what was happening, were becoming more frequent.(p. 85) 

 

The rabbi had been one of the first to vanish from Haarlem.(p. 90) 

 

It was a drizzly November morning in 1941, a year and a half after the invasion, as I stepped outside to fold back the shutters that I saw a group of four German soldiers coming down the Barteljorisstraat. They were wearing combat helmets low over their ears, rifles strapped to their shoulders…. At Weil’s Furriers… the group stopped….

Inside we could hear glass breaking. Soldiers began carrying out armloads of furs.(p. 86) 

Exhibit 10: Arrests

 

 

Exhibit 11: Jewish refugees fleeing Germany

It was Sunday, May 10, 1942, exactly two years after the fall of Holland….

Each month the occupation seemed to grow harsher, restrictions more numerous. The latest heartache for Dutchmen was an edict making it a crime to sing the “Wilhelmus,” our national anthem. (p. 91) 

Exhibit 12: On the way to the camps

Exhibit 13: Dreadful consequences of Regime Occupation

 

Exhibit 14: Death camp locations

Exhibit 15: Emerging United States camps