The month of September 2019 marks the 80th anniversary of the attack by Nazi Germany on its neighbour Poland, the act of aggression that ignited the Second World War and a conflagration that would engulf Europe in a storm of blood and steel.
Who were the soldiers that wore the iconic steel helmets and twisted cross on their uniforms? In effect, how were these implements of the Blitzkrieg, along with the panzers and Stukas, “manufactured.” Who were these purported Ubermensch, “Supermen” of the Third Reich?
In actuality, all began as children, as tabula rasa. They would be carefully, relentlessly moulded into that which the world famous German writer of the day, Thomas Mann, would describe as “machinists of death” motivated by a “terrible obedience.”
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