How to Keep Going in the Face of Fascism

How do you go to work every day when your country is being systematically dismantled? When every system is being broken: from education, immigration, and public safety to scientific research, environmental protection, public health, food safety — you name it, the Federal government is corrupting it, likely for decades to come (or more). So how do we keep working? Keep going to our stupid little jobs every day? Keep caring about things that suddenly really don’t seem to matter at all?

My book research tells me that for the women scientists who suddenly found themselves under Nazi rule in the 1930s, the answers varied because their situations varied. First off, there was the question of whether you still had a job to go to. Just as the government has cleared out opponents of its goals in our current American administration, so did the Nazis. The ultimatum was simple: fall in line or you’re out. Contribute to realizing these fascist ideals or you’re fired. And of course in both cases, plenty more left their positions in protest.

Under the Nazis, Jewish people were fired just for being Jewish; women fired just for being women. Today, plenty of women of color have been similarly unceremoniously let go; people with jobs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) were also fired, and funding to research and programs with DEI-related words cut.

For physicist Lise Meitner, who managed to keep one of her jobs under the Nazis (though was fired from her professorship because she was Jewish), she buried herself in her work. I mean, when you’re doing research that’s leading up to the discovery of nuclear fission, losing yourself in your work was likely much easier. About to change the world forever with your Very Important Research? Yeah, that’s gonna help you forget about the fascism for a few hours a day. The rest of us? Hard to find purpose in that meeting about selling stuff to people they don’t need.

Still, Lise’s life wasn’t exactly comfortable. The Nazi flag hung above her workplace. One of her coworkers, who lived in the next apartment on the employee campus, was an ardent Nazi. Her evenings were spent desperately trying to find a way to escape Germany alive, without being explicit in letters, since those were likely monitored, and without attracting the attention of her fascist neighbor. The loss of her professorship meant loss of income.

For physicist Hedwig Kohn, she was immediately fired from her university research job, so scrambled to secure a private position. She was incredibly lucky to find a role with a lighting company, one that her old job let her perform in a back room. She continued advising the students she had been working with because she cared so much about helping them achieve their degrees. Her little back room had to be hidden away in case the Nazi police came to the University, but she made sure her students knew how to find her. Caring for future generations and doing lighting research that led to a patent — that’s how she kept going day after day. That and she, too, spent all her spare time writing letters desperately seeking safe passage out of Germany.

I see so many people complaining about the folks who are currently leaving the US behind, but I’m sure many of them are just looking for jobs, looking for a place where they can live peacefully and not be targeted for their identity.

In Germany, the oppressed who lived through the Nazis and those who escaped — they felt utterly betrayed by those who chose to stay. That their former friends and colleagues would continue on, business as usual, was an absolute slap in the face. That they didn’t all resign their government jobs or jobs that rewarded the government in some way was an unforgiveable betrayal.

While we I know few people can afford to resign in protest (and many people can’t even afford to simply protest without risking losing their jobs) we can all find some small way to speak out and fight back against our current regime.

I think the lesson from history is to find something that matters to you, even if it’s not your job, and spend time doing that. Make protest art. Help people find and contact their reps. Help hide your neighbor. Publicly shame fascists. Refuse service to fascists and encourage others to do the same. Organize help for those being oppressed. Recognize that oppression of anyone means freedom for no one.

Olivia Campbell is a science journalist and New York Times bestselling author. Signed copies of her books are available at Newtown Bookshop and Doylestown Bookshop.

Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine

Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History.

Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Washington Post, New York Magazine, People, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Undark, Aeon, Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Catapult, Literary Hub, and History.com, among others. Campbell is the resident “science of folklore” contributor at National Geographic, an editor at Everyday Health, and an occasional thesis advisor for her alma mater, Johns Hopkins University’s science writing master’s degree program. Find out more on her website.