I have noticed lately a proliferation of movies about the final days of the Third Reich. In these days of personalization, it’s hard to tell if that is a true trend or whether Amazon Prime and Netflix have just decided to feed my interest in that topic. One of the best of these is Downfall, made in 2005, an award-winning depiction of Adolf Hitler’s last days in his Berlin bunker as told by his final secretary, Traudl Junge. Obviously, I have a fascination with almost anything having to do with World War II, but I think this movie goes beyond that because it depicts very accurately, the backside of power and authoritarianism in a way that is almost universally understood to have been corrupted and inhumane.
This topic has more than a little bit of broad interest these days because I think we all sense that we are approaching the end of an era of corrupted power and malfeasance. It is hard to watch this movie of Hitler’s last days and his final ravings which epitomize the ideology of the nationalist socialist movement, which became the Nazi Party and the Third Reich. The Third Reich under Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship lasted from 1933 to 1945. This dark period in history was driven by a large swath of the German people, but embodied in the personage of Adolf Hitler. The widespread active support and true believers were a significant minority that were genuine ideological adherents who enthusiastically embraced Nazi ideas. The Nazi Party had about 8.5 million members by 1945 (roughly 10% of the population), though membership alone doesn’t indicate ideological commitment. The Hitler Youth and other organizations indoctrinated younger generations. Certain groups—particularly segments of the military, civil service, and professional classes—showed strong support. And one cannot ignore the much broader passive acceptance and complicity throughout Germany. Many Germans weren’t fervent Nazis but went along just the same.
This was led by a tendency we share today, which is thought to be economic pragmatism. The regime reduced unemployment dramatically (partly through rearmament and public works), which generated support. Fervent nationalism played an equally big part. Many approved of restoring “German greatness” after WWI’s humiliation, even if they disliked other aspects. And then there was plenty of conformity and fear to go around to fill in around the ideology. Dissent was dangerous, you could get shot just for holding or expressing divergent views (sound familiar?). The police state always creates incentives to comply. There was resistance, though it was limited and ruthlessly suppressed.
Most historians conclude that while hardcore Nazi ideologues were a minority, the regime enjoyed substantial popular support, especially in the early years, and operated with broad complicity. The combination of genuine support, opportunism, fear, propaganda effectiveness, and incremental normalization of extremism allowed the regime to function. The uncomfortable truth is that it didn’t require majority fanaticism—just enough active support, widespread passive acceptance, and insufficient resistance to enable catastrophic outcomes.
Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power through a combination of democratic elections and political maneuvering during Germany’s Weimar Republic period. Economic devastation from WWI reparations, the Great Depression, and political instability created conditions the Nazis exploited. Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933 and quickly consolidated absolute power, dismantling democratic institutions. The regime was built on extreme nationalism, militarism, and a toxic ideology of racial supremacy. The Nazis promoted the concept of an “Aryan master race” and scapegoated Jews, Roma, disabled people, and others as enemies. This wasn’t merely rhetoric—it became state policy enforced through terror, propaganda, and eventually systematic genocide. The state controlled virtually all aspects of life through organizations like the SS, Gestapo (secret police), and extensive propaganda machinery under Joseph Goebbels.
Hitler’s aggressive territorial expansion triggered WWII and was his ultimate undoing. The Third Reich’s twelve-year existence left an indelible mark on world history, leading to fundamental changes in international law (including the Nuremberg trials establishing precedents for crimes against humanity), the United Nations’ formation, and ongoing efforts to understand how such systematic evil could occur in a modern, educated society.
Should that history be giving us all pause during these times? To be sure. One of the fascinating dimensions of the movie is the deep seated commitment of Hitler and his most loyal followers to his ideology. This comes through in the final days when faced with the decision about trying to accept defeat and escape Berlin versus staying in the bunker and facing the consequences of their inevitable demise. Conviction of people like Mrs. Goebel’s was so strong that she did not want her children or her to live in a world where nationalist socialism was not the ruling order . She, Hitler and his closest followers prefer death to giving up the dream that they so fervently believed would make for a better world.
The message that I take from that is that people driven by power and corrupted by its intoxication, not only ignore and lose sight of the wishes and needs of their people, but also ultimately lose any semblance of humanity. The very same sense of pragmatism that drives people to follow this power-based ideology, is ignored during the final reckoning as the vast majority of people come to their senses and try desperately to move back to center where the ideologues refuse to compromise.
As Donald Trump turns from one expansionist idea to the next, he is very much losing the thread of what his nationalistic fervor promised when he came to power. His support of Israeli aggression in Gaza was symbolic in its support of Judaism, but simultaneously showed his anti-Muslim priorities. In the same way that the Weimar Republic concerned itself with the elimination of successful Jews, Trump’s world has focused on the elimination of successful Muslims. But that’s where the contradictions begin, because Trump world has made a point of defending Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar. Those countries represent the main state of Muslim Sunni countries. Meanwhile, Iran, the center of the Muslim Shiite world has become the easy target since America and Iran have been enemies for almost 50 years. Americans seemed somewhat indifferent when Trump bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities because the logic of stopping nuclear proliferation with impersonal 2000 pound bombs seemed easy.
Then Trump turned his sites on Venezuela, an outlier country to most Americans and a clear target for change, especially from his base of Cuban-born, Florida-centered, right-wing anti-communists. Still to many in his base, sending U.S. troops into Venezuela started to feel like an overreach for an isolationist. But now Trump has turned his attention to conquering Greenland and calling it his own. It starts to feel like Hitler, deciding that he must have Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, and everything beyond. What was once an image of national defense strength has now become an image of a crazed expansionist who spends his time looking at a map, wondering what world he can conquer next. Trump’s support for his Greenland vision is almost nonexistent, even among his most loyal Republican supporters. Everyone seems to recognize that this is a bridge too far and that this expansionist vision will be the undoing of global peace.
Trump is increasingly finding itself in the bunker surrounding himself only with his most blinded loyalists. Anyone who disagrees with him is being characterized as disloyal, and he spends an increasing amount of his time seeking out and calling out betrayal at every turn. I will keep watching movies that depict Hitler’s fall from power because I want to be reminded of what Trump’s end will look like as it approaches, which seems to be imminent.