Politics

How to Kill Democracy in Four Easy Steps: Lessons on the Gestapo at 85

Losing it

Eighty-five years ago the Nazi terror machine began operations. It met little resistance. And that’s the lesson that should really worry us now.

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Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast

The screams could not be heard from the street. The building, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8, had previously been the Berlin School of Industrial Arts and Crafts and was too solidly insulated to reveal to passers-by the consequences of its new role as the headquarters of the Gestapo.

Inside was Hans Otto, an actor...

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