In an era of widespread fear, political leaders find an “enemy” to demonize. The leaders tell the public: “Beware, the enemy resides among us and is dangerous. The enemy claims to want to live and work with you in peace, but in truth, the enemy does not have your best interests at heart. The enemy will hurt us all if we don’t do something. But don’t worry. The enemy looks a certain way, that’s how you will know them. Just to be sure, we, your protectors in government, will now begin registering them and assigning them numbers. That way we can track them. Soon, we will round them up and incarcerate them in remote camps guarded by barbed wire and armed soldiers.”
All of this, as And Then They Came for Us makes clear, is a very old script that stubbornly recurs in human history. Under Trump, the script is again current. Plainly and powerfully, And Then They Came for Us shows how it has happened before in America, during World War II, as this country simultaneously fought Nazis in Europe and, here on American soil, incarcerated 120,000 citizens of Japanese ancestry based on false fears fed to a public that had been primed to be misled. Among those incarcerated was George Takei, who helps narrate this essential film that serves as a warning and a wake-up call.
AND THEN THEY CAME FOR US (Official Trailer) from GOOD DOCS on Vimeo.
