On January 30, 1933, the Nazis acquired mastery of Germany when Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor. That evening Hitler stood triumphantly in the window of the Reich Chancellery waving to thousands of storm troopers who staged parades throughout the streets of Berlin. The Nazis proclaimed that their Third Reich would be the greatest civilization in history and would last for thousands of years. But the meteoric rise of Hitler and national socialism was followed by an almost equally rapid defeat; the Third Reich survived for a mere twelve years. But one of the main causes of World W…
