How does a country slide into fascism? We see some of the answer here, mostly from the perspective of ordinary people, in this brilliant documentary, that combines archive photography and diary excerpts. The world on 1930s Germany feels in some ways distant, but in others very familliar. Hitler siezes power and life goes on, except for those for whom it quite literally doesn't. Arendt's famous phrase about the banality of evil never felt more apt: it's no surprise when a selfish and philandering doctor turns out to have Nazi buddies and be unpurturbed by their crimes. The rank and file Nazis mostly seem to have been the simply the worst people: occasional glimpses of Hitler and Goering reveal them as petty, insecure men. Goebbels, though scary, seems rather more impressive. How does facism come to pass? People let it happen. And this programme manages to provide new insight into this phenomenon in spite of the frequency with which Nazi Germany appears on our screens.
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