Under the cover of night to hide their crimes, workers wearing masks and tactical vests arrived Monday at New Orleans’ Battle of Liberty Place monument to begin the process of removing Southern history from Louisiana.

Many likened the removal of history to the book burnings under Nazi Germany saying that those that refuse to learn from history were doomed to repeat it.

Emotions in the state of Louisiana were running high and tempers were short as local citizens have been fighting this dismantling of their local heritage since 2015 from a small percentage of politically correct groups.

This was supposed to be the first of four scheduled relocations of Confederate memorials after years of heated public debate and politically charged legal debates.  Among the four slated for removal is 131-year-old General Robert E. Lee, erected in 1884.  A federal judge in Louisiana affirmed the city’s right to move them in March and the city secured private funding to do so.

As a result, police snipers were positioned on nearby rooftops, according to The Times-Picayune newspaper. Company names on trucks and equipment were covered with cardboard and black tape to protect contractors involved in the controversial operation.