Author: Julie Kruse

Julie Kruse’s grandparents Albert Kruse and Ilse Flesch Kruse emigrated to the U.S. from Germany with their sons to escape the Nazis in 1938. Julie worked most recently as a contractor with the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., until Jan. 17, 2025.

My German Family History Makes U.S. Current Events Excruciating to Watch

My great-grandfather Prof. Dr. Max Flesch, a German doctor, author and academic of Jewish descent who lived in and near Frankfurt, was stripped of the right to practice medicine, teach and publish. These assaults were enabled by academic and medical institutions which voluntarily, and sometimes enthusiastically, complied with Nazi mandates. 

I see terrifying echoes of my family’s past in the Trump administration’s assault on civil institutions, academic freedom and human rights.