Video: Learning History’s Lessons at Zeppelin Field

Fascism is in the news these days: White-supremacist groups are waving their flags, blustery strong men with a disregard for the norms of democratic governing are using the same playbook that worked for dictators a century ago, and Europeans who thought a repeat was not possible are now looking with a wary eye at countries sliding to the extreme right. (Of course, we’re not talking Holocaust-type fascism, but an ideological cousin — built on fear and promises — that can lead a society astray.)

We’re in Nürnberg, filming an hour-long doc on fascism that will air next September on public television. We need to take advantage of the buildings and artifacts that survive from the Reich (“empire”), which Hitler boasted would last a thousand years (which lasted from 1933 to 1945). Much was destroyed by WWII bombs, but Zeppelin Field, where Hitler held his enormous rallies, remains. In this clip, we visit the rally ground’s Golden Hall — the best surviving Hitler interior I’ve seen.

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