One of the shows I watched over the weekend was a 1989 BBC Documentary titled, "The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler!" I'm not sure what prompted the Military Channel to run this show over the Labor Day (US) holiday, but it was excellent timing.
What's neat about this movie is how the BBC sought out and interviewed a number of the German people closely involved with the history of that era. A member of the Hitler Youth, one of the original storm troopers, Hitler's secretary and his chief of staff. All appear to sincerely regret what happened, but all were mesmerized by the promises for "change" that Hitler promised the Germans. It was impressive how with his primary talent of public speaking he was able to horns-waggle an entire population.
And coming just days before our current President was addressing America's youth the parallels quite startling. I'm not equating the two men, but more the two situations. Fortunately for us, we're nowhere near the unemployment, the inflation and the low national self-esteem the Germans were in the 1930s. Were we more desperate we could easily find ourselves in a similar "fatal attraction" with a smoothed tongued leader just like the Germans.