Dr. Beth A. Griech-Polelle

Europe's Dark Journey [:] the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany was interesting listening. It's been more than 40 years since I took 'Modern European History' in college. I'd remembered Otto von Bismark and the unification of Germany, but not the Franco-Prussian War. (To be honest, when that war was mentioned, the only memory that came back was a story set in Paris during that war, its heroine, and a werewolf.)

I'd known that the jaw-hit-the-floor-and-head-for-the-basement stupidity of the Treaty of Versailles was a major cause of World War II. I hadn't known (or hadn't remembered) that the treaty was payback for the end of the Franco-Prussian War, not to mention the harsh treaty Germany forced on Russia when they got out of World War I early.

I learned quite a few more details about that treaty and the troubles of the Weimar Republic.

Much of what is taught here about Adolf Hitler's life and rise to power I already knew from documentaries, although his devotion to an anti-Semitic publication after World War I and before President Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor was new to me.

The details about how Hitler used his emergency powers to destroy democracy in Germany were chilling. I learned why Hitler moved Jewish citizens away from their neighborhoods. We also get what life was like for Aryan Germans during the 1930s. I'd known that women were expected to limit themselves to home and motherhood, but not that they had to quit their jobs when they got married.

There are plenty of chilling lessons to be learned from these courses. I do recommend listening to them. 2022 addendum: the part about how Hitler took away civil rights overnight reminds me of what the US Supreme Court has been doing this year -- scary.… (altro)