What utter nonsense! The problem was not that no-one knew what the Nazis were up to; everyone in Germany knew! The Nazis were <i>elected</i>, they didn't seize power in a revolution!<p>But as I always say in such discussions, you cannot evaluate history out of context. In the 20s and 30s it was perfectly normal to be what we would now consider a political extremist. It was <i>fashionable</i> be a Fascist or a Communist. Everyone gets swept up in the zeitgeist in any era. I guarantee that the next generation will look back at us over some issue and say, <i>WTF were they thinking?!</i>