If anyone hasn't seen the movie "The Story of Anne Frank" based on Melissa Muller's book, please honor her today by watching it; the entire film is on Youtube.
In her book Muller made the point that when the Nazis invaded Holland they didn't immediately begin doing horrible things; in fact, they behaved quite well. Then, like the slow turning of a lock, they imposed laws, restrictions, bans, until the population knew the full hell of life in a totalitarian state.
Any parallel to modern America is purely coincidental.