Just off the top of my head:theparsonski said:I have my History GCSE exam on Tuesday, and it's on Germany from 1918-1945. I'd like to sneak in some interesting facts that we haven't been taught in class, just to be a smartass. So, has anyone got any interesting facts about the Nazis (as you may be able to guess, they feature rather prominently under that heading). In fact, anything interesting about the topic at all would do for me. I'll soon see how quirky I can make my essay...
1) The Rosenstrasse Protest of 1943 was a movement of Germans (primarily women, almost all related in some way to the victims) non-violently protesting the treatment and demanding the return of the Jews being held in Rosenstrasse 2-4. It's significant because it's the only successful large-scale protest of the Nazi treatment of the Jews, with around 1,800 lives saved.
2) There is a quasi-common conspiracy theory that the leaders of the Nazi party were in contact with aliens and that is why they had the most advanced technology of the war.
3) The post-WWI depression in Germany got to the point where you would need a wheelbarrow of cash to buy a loaf of bread. There's several amusing-yet-utterly-depressing photos from the time of long lines of people with their wheelbarrows of cash outside bakeries, grocers, etc.
4) The Nazis were all over the place with their crazy super-science research. They did everything from super-soldier programs to flying tanks to ICBMs, almost all of which failed miserably. The scientists involved however were conscripted by the US and USSR after the war and laid the groundwork for a significant portion of modern technology.
5) Hitler was reportedly a superficially decent guy. Clearly, he was a twisted son of a *****, but there's numerous accounts (most of which were discounted as/with propaganda on either side) that those who knew him personally felt him to possess a large degree of integrity.
I'm not inclined to agree with that, and I'd personally chalk it up to the fact that he was a charismatic fuck, but that's what the reports have said.