Mr. [Peter] Harf, JAB’s chairman, agrees. He said he had recently read “The Order of the Day,” a historic novella by Éric Vuillard set in the years before World War II. One scene takes place in February 1933, when Hitler and the president of the Reichstag encourage 24 German industrialists to donate to the Nazi party. The businessmen — representing companies that are still prominent German corporate names, like Siemens, Bayer and Allianz — duly open their wallets.

Mr. Harf said it made him think that not enough voices in business were speaking up against the re-emergence of nationalism and populism in Europe and the United States. Every time business leaders make decisions, he said, they should ask, “What does this mean for our children? What does it mean for the future?”

“In history, businesses have enabled populists,” he added. “We mustn’t make the same mistake today.” Then he quoted the Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal: “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”

from “Nazis Killed Her Father. Then She Fell in Love With One,” by Katrin Bennhold, new york times

For Ajume H. Wingo, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies democracies, the fate of the statues matters less than how they are removed. “Justice must be seen to be done,” said Dr. Wingo, who argued that the statues should not be taken down covertly, but rather in public ceremonies that are as prominent as their original unveilings.

He suggested a symbolic, if not literal, torching of Confederate statutes. “That is how you take the power of it,” he said.

from “What Should Happen to Confederate Statues? A City Auctions One for $1.4 Million,” BY Sarah Mervosh, nEW yORK tIMES, jUNE 22, 2019