Immediately after our visit to Martin Behaim Gymnasium, the Roundtable had an opportunity to visit the Nuremberg Documentation Center, a sobering history of the growth of what historian Hannah Arendt once called the “banality of evil” under the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler. Despite the recent re-emergence of right wing, neo-Nazi groups in Germany (and elsewhere in Europe), Germany seems to be dealing with this shocking history in a forthright way.

The center abuts the old Nuremberg rally grounds, memorial grounds, memorialized in Leni Riefenstahl’s movie, “Triumph of the Will.” The rallies were designed to solidify the cult of Hitler and make the Fuehrer synonymous with Germany itself.

The documentation center traces the history of the growth of fascism in Germany and describes how Hitler used democratic methods to seize control of the nation during a period of economic stagnation and rampant inflations.

The documentation center highlights:

Nov 192 3	Munich “beer hall putsch.” Attempted coup. Hitler jailed. Writes “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle).
July 1932	Nazi party gained 37.4% of the vote in the Reichstag elections.
Jan 1933	Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Hindenburg
Feb 1933	The Reichstag Fire. Fire destroys German parliament. Nazis blame on Communists.
March 1933	Enabling Act gives Hitler power to make laws for four years without consulting Reichstag.
April 1933	The Gestapo, Nazi secret police, formed. Nazis take over local government.
May 1933	Trade Unions banned
May 1933	25,000 ‘un-German’ burned, encouraged by Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda.
July 1933	All political parties except the Nazis were banned
Sept 1935	Nuremburg Laws defined German citizenship. Relationships between Jews and Aryans banned.
March 1936	Hitler sent German troops to re-occupy the Rhineland, a move that violates Versailles Treaty ending World War I.
March 1938	Hitler seizes Austria, his homeland, claiming to re-united the Germans in Austria with those in Germany (Anschluss).
Sept 1938	Munich Agreement – Allies agreed that Germany could have the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in return for peace
Nov 1938	Kristallnacht – Jewish shops and synagogues destroyed.
March 1939	Hitler occupies Czechoslovakia, and ignores Munich Agreement
August 1939	Nazi-Soviet Pact – Alliance between Hitler and Stalin agrees to divide Poland between the two countries.
January 1942	Wannsee Conference approved plans for the ‘Final Solution’.
1942-1945	Six million Jews and other undesirables murdered in concentration camps
April 1945	Hitler commits suicide
May 7 1945	Armistice ends Allies war with Germany, with hostilities to cease on May 8.