The Fall of Nazism

Everybody needs an interest. My Dad has many, including mathematics and tennis. He also likes watching documentaries on ABC or SBS late at night regarding the rise and fall of movements like Communism, Stalinism and the Nazi movement. He really enjoys delving into the reasons behind these movements, how they gained momentum and events that led to their downfall.

The documentaries are always on very late and night. They are invariably full of scratchy black and white footage backed by desperate-sounding music and interspersed with long monologues from subtitled interviews with people discussing dark periods of their nations' histories.

The content is really quite riveting. But the general tone always brings me down and sends me to bed with feelings of unease long before Dad himself shuffles to bed having had enough of the sepulchral voice of the narrator.

I could have saved him interminable hours of watching these documentaries if I had come across this vital piece of information much earlier. One of my good friends emailed me the following, and it settles once and for all the reason behind the fall of Nazism.