Fascinating as the political process has always been as Presidential election time draws near, the current level of desperation and hysteria on the part of certain candidates has no precedent in recent history. I understand the dilemma the Republican candidates are facing, trying to find a way to secure the rabid right-wing of their party without merely “stirring up the crazies”, as Sen. John McCain called a recent rally in Arizona headlined by GOP “bete noire” Donald Trump.

 

It is far too early to put much stock in polls, the conventional wisdom goes, so Trump’s enormous lead in New Hampshire, Iowa and even nationally is no cause for alarm among his competitors. (And if you believe that, I have the deed to a beautiful bridge in New York City that I could be persuaded to part with for a nominal sum.)

 

And what some national broadcasters refer to as “the clown car” is filling up fast, with new riders announcing nearly every week.  Only a select few of these will be allowed to take part in the first nationally-televised GOP debate on Fox next week, with entry based on where the candidate stands in some specially-selected (by the network) national polls.

 

The race to “Out-Trump Trump” has taken some interesting, and sometimes unappetizing turns in recent days, in particular the contribution by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who equated the potential nuclear agreement with Iran with President Obama “marching the Israelis to the door of the oven” in reference to the Nazi death camps of WW II.  Obama has had similar mud thrown at him before, with artwork depicting him in a “Hitler” mustache being popular for a while.

 

But here’s a sunny fact on that subject.  Actual survivors of the Holocaust are deeply offended when bloviating politicians use the unimaginable suffering they endured to try to make cheap political points.

 

As a child in the Great White North in the 1950’s, the couple who lived next door to my Finnish grandmother were both survivors of the concentration camps run by the Nazis in Poland.  They first met on a train, packed into a locked cattle car in freezing December weather as the Germans fled the approaching Russian army in late 1944.

 

As the train slowed at the top of a steep hill, some of the prisoners broke a hole in the side of the rail car and leapt out into the darkness.  A dozen of so were able to make a run for the nearby woods, though several were shot and killed by the guards firing from the train.

 

The young couple, who barely knew each other’s names, kept going through the forest until they encountered a group of Polish partisans.  As the war ended, they made their way through several refugee camps until they were able to book a passage to New York City.  I remember them saying that they had only felt “really free” when their ship passed by the Statue of Liberty, meaning that they knew then that they had arrived safely in America.

 

As he had been a miner in Poland before the war, the lure of work in the iron mines in the Great White North brought the couple west.  I remember they had a daughter who was my age, so my grandmother naturally assumed that we would one day marry.  We kids thought that was a fine idea at the time, but I guess we just forgot (little Sophia caught a break there, no doubt).

 

I also remember the numbers tattooed on her parents arms, and the haunted looks on their faces as they told their story.  They were the sole survivors of their respective families.

 

Using the Holocaust to pile up a few votes dishonors the victims, living and dead, and it makes us look stupid in the eyes of the rest of the world.

 

We don’t need that right now.