HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-04-09T10:12:51.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: "The outcome of one man's beliefs": why the Holocaust happened
items: The rise of the Nazis and the importance of heeding warnings
items: The final years of the war | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
items: The Holocaust | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
items: The outbreak of war | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
items: The rise of the Nazi party | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
items: The road to power | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
items: Nazis in the 1930s | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
items: Timeline: the rise and fall of the Third Reich
items: Why did Hitler choose the swastika as a Nazi symbol?

"The outcome of one man's beliefs": why the Holocaust happened
type: item
date: 2025-04-09T10:12:40.000Z
creator: Sir Richard J Evans
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Why did the Holocaust happen? Sir Richard J Evans explains how Adolf Hitler's delusions led to the mass extermination of six million Jews
encoded: 80 years ago, early in 1945, what is now generally known as ‘The Holocaust’ – that is, the mass extermination of some six million European Jews – was more or less over. In the years 1941-45, in the midst of the Second World War, Jews all across the continent, in areas conquered or dominated by Nazi Germany, had been rounded up and killed. This was no accidental by-product of the war; it was an organised process, deliberately planned and executed. And it was above all the outcome of one man’s beliefs and delusions: Adolf Hitler. This programme of mass murder on a gargantuan scale was what Hitler and his Nazi Party termed “the final solution of the Jewish problem in Europe”, a problem that was entirely the product of their own warped imagination. In 1944, Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined a new term to describe what happened: ‘genocide’, meaning the destruction of an entire people or nation. Such was indeed the Holocaust, visited not upon the Jews because of their religion, their culture or their social position, but because of their race. Even people who were half- Jewish or quarter-Jewish were targeted by the Nazis. Hitler's beliefs Dismayingly, there have been other genocides since the end of the Second World War. But the Jewish genocide had an extra dimension not shared by any other. Antisemitism was, and remains, fueled by a paranoid conspiracy theory, according to which Jews of every kind were driven by what Hitler called their “racial instinct” to engage in a ceaseless and unrelenting “drive to world domination”. The only way to stop this – in Hitler’s view – was to exterminate them wherever they were to be found. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/04/GettyImages-1278103471-f23880c.jpg" width="769" height="1024" alt="Hitler's claimed in his political manifesto 'Mein Kampf' (first published in 1925), that “the idea came to me that I would liberate Germany, that I would make it great”.(Jim Heimann Collection/Getty I…

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The rise of the Nazis and the importance of heeding warnings
type: item
date: 2025-02-20T17:05:39.000Z
creator: Laurence Rees
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: “The idea that there’s a widespread movement to learn from history or to understand it meaningfully is false.” Laurence Rees explains to Danny Bird how studying the history of the Nazi regime yields warnings – but that frighteningly few people are interested in learning from the past
encoded: Danny Bird: The subtitle of your book is ‘Twelve Warnings from History’. What prompted you to write this now? Laurence Rees: My interest has always been in mentalities: why people think the way they do, how they justify their actions, and what makes them believe they are right. This focus has shaped my career much more than, say, an interest in military history. Though I respect such pursuits, my background in documentary journalism has always pushed me toward understanding people’s decisions: why do people think what they do? I’ve been fascinated by these questions since the 1990s. Over time I began delving deeper into psychology and neuroscience to better understand mentalities, particularly those of the Nazis. This new exploration wasn’t driven by a sense that the world needed my book; rather, it grew from a broader interest in the human condition. That condition remains relevant regardless of current events. My 1997 BBC documentary The Nazis: A Warning from History drew on the German philosopher Karl Jaspers’ injunction: “That which has happened is a warning.” I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of history as a source of warnings, not lessons. Lessons suggest rigid rules – such as the claim that Winston Churchill’s opposition to Adolf Hitler proves that appeasement is always wrong. Yet Churchill appeased Stalin, so are there in fact occasions where appeasement is permissible? Read more | Did appeasement cause the Second World War? Warnings, however, are clearer. They function like a doctor’s advice that if you keep smoking, you’re more likely to develop lung cancer. It’s not a certainty, but it’s a valuable caution. This approach has guided my study of history – seeking warnings that can illuminate the human condition and help us navigate the present. When trying to understand the mentality of past eras, are eyewitness testimonies more helpful than archive research? I wouldn’t say that one approach is necessarily more valuable than the other. Having started i…

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The final years of the war | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
type: item
date: 2025-02-04T17:17:12.000Z
creator: Rachel Dinning
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: In the last episode of our Academy on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees explores the final years of the Second World War, and offers his thoughts on what this period can tell us about the nature of the Nazi regime
encoded: View Green Video on the source website

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The Holocaust | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
type: item
date: 2025-02-04T17:14:43.000Z
creator: Laurence Rees
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Holocaust
description: In the fifth episode of our Academy series on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees gives an expert overview of the Holocaust – from Nazi antisemitism to the horrors of the death camps
encoded: View Green Video on the source website

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The outbreak of war | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
type: item
date: 2025-02-04T17:12:05.000Z
creator: Laurence Rees
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: In the fourth episode of our Academy course on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees explores the first 20 months of World War Two – from the invasion of Poland, to war in the East
encoded: View Green Video on the source website

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The rise of the Nazi party | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
type: item
date: 2025-01-28T13:28:07.000Z
creator: Laurence Rees
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
description: In the first episode of our Academy course on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees charts the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party – from the party’s inauspicious origins to Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, on 30 January 1933
encoded: In the first episode of our Academy course on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees charts the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party – from the party’s inauspicious origins to Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, on 30 January 1933 View Green Video on the source website

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The road to power | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
type: item
date: 2025-01-28T10:53:56.000Z
creator: Laurence Rees
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: In the third episode of our Academy course on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees gives a brief overview of how and why Hitler led Germany into the Second World War
encoded: View Green Video on the source website

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Nazis in the 1930s | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture
type: item
date: 2025-01-28T10:50:27.000Z
creator: Laurence Rees
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: In the second episode of our Academy course on Nazi Germany, Laurence Rees explains how the Nazis governed Germany from that moment up until the outbreak of war in September 1939
encoded: View Green Video on the source website

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Timeline: the rise and fall of the Third Reich
type: item
date: 2025-01-27T16:45:18.000Z
creator: Roger Moorhouse
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Historian Roger Moorhouse charts the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, from the end of the First World War to the Third Reich's collapse in 1945
encoded: 1918-1919: The end of the First World War and the birth of the Weimar Republic 9 November 1918: The German monarchy collapses as Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and a new republic is established under the leadership of Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). 11 November 1918: Germany signs an armistice, effectively ending World War I. January 1919: The constitution of the new German republic is drafted, establishing a democratic parliamentary system, under a presidency. However, the new republic faces immediate challenges from extremist movements on both the left and right-wings, and due to unrest in Berlin, the constituent assembly for the new republic was held in the city of Weimar – thereby giving it its name. HistoryExtra Academy | Nazi Germany This six-part video course covers everything you need to know about Nazi Germany, guided by historian, author and broadcaster Laurence Rees Find out more 1919-1923: The Weimar Republic and economic instability January 1919: The German Workers' Party (DAP), is established in Munich by railway worker Anton Drexler. It would be the precursor to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), later known as the Nazi Party. June 1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed, officially ending the war. It imposes harsh terms on Germany, including reparations, territorial losses and a controversial “war guilt” clause, fostering widespread resentment among the German populace. September 1919: Adolf Hitler joins the DAP after attending a party meeting. February 1920: Under Hitler’s growing influence, the NSDAP presents its manifesto – the “25-Point Program” - which includes demands for the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles, the expansion of Germany’s territory, and the establishment of an authoritarian regime. July 1921: Hitler assumes leadership of the NSDAP, becoming its most prominent figure. Autumn 1923: Hyperinflation, resulting from the printing of money to finance the war, begins to seriously undermin…

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Why did Hitler choose the swastika as a Nazi symbol?
type: item
date: 2025-01-16T07:00:00.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Evergreen
description: By the early 1920s, the swastika, an ancient religious symbol, had been adopted by Adolf Hitler to represent the German Reich. How did it become the symbol of the Nazi party?
encoded: The swastika is today synonymous with Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime; a red and black symbol of the Second World War. But this hasn't always been the case – the swastika existed as a symbol long before it was adopted by the Nazis, and the symbol's story is longer and more complex than you might expect. So how and why did the Nazis use the swastika, and what is the ancient origin of the symbol made infamous by Hitler? Why did Hitler choose the swastika? When Adolf Hitler began his rise to power and looked for a symbol to encapsulate his movement, the Nazi Party and a strong future for Germany, the swastika became the clear choice. German antiquarian Heinrich Schliemann had grown obsessed with finding Troy, the lost city of Greek mythology, and in 1868 he set out with his copy of The Iliad to search the Mediterranean. Schliemann's search led him to the mysterious mound of Hisarlik on the Aegean coast of Turkey. There, during the 1870s, Schliemann unearthed layers of civilisations dating back thousands of years, and declared the oldest to be Troy. The city of legend had been found – although it turned out to be a different layer than the one Schliemann thought – as well as a cache of jewellery, bronze, silver and gold. Yet in the ancient ruins he made another fateful discovery: some 1,800 depictions of a symbol that resembled a cross with bent arms: the swastika. News of Schliemann’s sensational excavations spread far and wide, quickly followed by the swastika, which became a ubiquitous sign, visible throughout Europe and North America. At the same time, however, the swastika’s long history saw it become a favourite of German nationalists, who subscribed to a warped theory that they had descended from an ancient ‘master race’ known as the Aryans. This belief persisted into the 20th century, growing more pernicious until it appealed to Adolf Hitler, the leader of the burgeoning Nazi Party. Hitler understood the power of an image and knew it would give the Nazi ideals an his…

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