Not our finest hour
Expect no levity on the blog this morning. At least not from me, since I am reading a contemporary analysis of Nazi Germany in order to review it for the paper. So far so grimly, depressingly fascinating.
Written in 1940, it doesn't have any of the benefits of hindsight and yet the clarity with which Sebastian Haffner, the author, sees the systemic evil at the heart of Nazism is shaming to any intelligent adult who claims - as some have done - that they just didn't know what was going on until it was revealed to them after the war. Haffner is also chillingly astute in exposing quite how disastrous a blunder Chamberlain's policy of appeasement was because, by treating Hitler as a statesman, the British PM gave him more legitimacy in the eyes of the German public than he could muster alone.
With the 60th anniversary of the Second World War coming up expect quite a lot of Nazi and war-related features in all media.
