That film clip is astounding. I have a somewhat different view of World War II because my mother grew up in Massachusetts and her parents were Republican supporters of President Hoover. Hoover was not the fool that the Democrats make him out to be. My grandfather, that is, my mother's father, had a degree in engineering from Tufts but he became so distraught during FDR's reign that he quit his engineer's life and started selling peanuts from the back of his station wagon. He was upset because of the lies. As a kid, I thought my grandparents were insane and that frankly, my mom was too. What they said--and they said very little as time went about any of this--I heard only from them, not from anyone else, so I of course believed my teachers' version of the runup to World War II rather than my parents. Before my mom passed away a year ago, I was able to ask her if people who supported Hoover were really as upset as her parents were when FDR won. Her face took on an unually tense expression and she said, this is hard to describe but as if it had just happened yesterday, as a person recalled a traumatic life event: "Of course we were. President Hoover had saved all of Europe." This sentence spoke volumes to me because it meant that Hoover was not immune to suffering nor was he stupid. He had performed a miracle in "feeding Europe" during the years following World War I. My mom's statement made me go back and do some more homework to learn what really happened, partly because my mother had always told me that we all knew what was happening in Germany and were upset all along with FDR's lack of reaction to helping the Jews in Germany. My mother blamed FDR for the Holocaust, and I knew a great deal more about it than anyone I went to school with in Lynnfield because my mother, in her heart feeling blameless but in her heart feeling it was FDR's fault, was much more upset about it than other people ever were. She often mentioned the ship that FDR turned back to Germany. She was an ardent supporter of Israel's growth and protection so that this could never happen again. My mother said Hitler's evilness was not at all a surprise--and this is where I always thought she was exaggerating, but seeing your movie clip, perhaps she wasn't--but she said that it was felt by Republicans that FDR was playing politics with the German vote in the Midwest; that was why he let Hitler kill the Jewish people in Germany. It makes me realize that there may be a different version of events in Europe that created the conditions for what happened: Hoover was conducting a hugely important life-saving humanitarian program throughout Europe in the years before he became president and afterward. FDR was an isolationist, and part of the New Deal pulled foreign aid off the table and back into this country's coffers, where it could be argued and was that it belonged. This left an impoverished middle Europe to the mercies of Hitler et al and left the World War I allies open to the charges of Hitler that the reparations were responsible for Germany's march through Europe. All my life, I heard FDR hailed as the person who saved us from the Depression and World War II and the Nazis. But I wonder if there is some truth in the beliefs of a handful of Hoover supporters that FDR's actions actually created the conditions for World War II. It is interesting to me in light of today's conflict between the Democrats and Republicans. George Bush is demonized as causing the bloodshed instead of commended for avoiding much worse. The Democrats refuse to acknowledge Saddam Hussein's atrocities, instead speaking only on George Bush. They never acknowledge the liberation of the Iraqi people from the policies of the West which President Bush was not responsible for but which we have all suffered for. I fear the Democrats are going to take us right back to the brink of annihilation, as they did in World War II. I've reached a point of thinking the Democrats of our generation are plainly evil in that they refuse to understand what exactly is transpiring in the Middle East and their actions will undoubtedly lead back to the Second Holocaust. And then perhaps our own demise as well this time. And who can stop the Democrats when they continue to promise a chicken in every pot! And scare the old people that the Republicans will take away their Social Security. (They forget that Clinton let the government shut down but George Bush 41 raised taxes rather than permit such fright.) Now I know why my grandfather went nuts. It was the lies, not the events themselves. It is bizarre to see a situation that you lived through and know firsthand about described as something you don't recognize. It is so frustrating.

Great comment, Marci, thanks.