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Hitler. The Holocaust. Big themes, that get a lot of teaching time across the Western world. Adolf Hitler was the Fuhrer of Germany during the Second World War. During that time, six million Jews (and countless hundreds of thousands of other minorities and political figures and anyone without the right face) were murdered in concentration camps in Germany and Eastern Europe.

Six million Jews. One guy who may (but probably didn't) only have had one testicle. Is the balance skewed? Are we neglecting the Holocaust - history's biggest warning of the dangers of intolerance - in favour of perpetuating the personality cult of a paranoid tyrant?

Well, not exactly. But Hitler is over-emphasised, and we need to sort it out.

The problem is, there are people with Views on history, particularly with regard to the Second World War, where there are so many people still alive. While we still view that period of history through the prism of wartime propaganda, which on our side cast Hitler as an evil scheming bogeyman, and on the Nazi side cast him as the proud father of the Aryan race, the truth is that Hitler was just a figurehead - one (albeit very large) cog in a brutal political machine. To bang on about Hitler is already to over-emphasise him, his job was to make speeches, bang tables and look good in army uniform. His sly use of the media, with the help of Goebbels, distorted him into this omniscient leader who cast a long shadow over Europe but... if you actually look at things Hitler DID, it becomes clear that Nazism conquered Western Europe in spite of him rather than with the help of him and his cronies. At one point he was convinced Denmark would be the decisive theatre of war for the Allies. Goering (aka 'The Flying Pig') didn't want to arm the Luftwaffe's fighters, convinced the noblest form of aerial combat was to knock the other guy's plane out of the air.

So the 'Hitler Myth' is a powerful argument for playing down Adolf in school history lessons. But then there's the Holocaust. We like to think that a little goes a long way with the Holocaust - we all agree it's a horrific moment in history that must never be forgotten, but then Spielberg wins an Oscar for a film so crass that he shows a shower in a concentration camp that's actually a shower. In X-Men films we show the grim Auschwitz gates with 'Arbeit Macht Frei' and assume that the audience will be chilled to the very core of their being by this cold reminder of man's darkest side.

But, um. Look, I've been a

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