LAURENCE REES: And the single most mistaken decision of consequence of the war?

MARY FULBROOK: The single most mistaken decision was taken a long way before the war, and was Hitler. In the summer of ‘34 at that point they should have got rid of Hitler. If Hitler was appointed Chancellor by constitutional means in January ‘33 it didn’t take very long to see that he was dismantling the Weimar Constitution and this was not politics as normal, and I think the most mistaken decision was to go on with him when it was quite clear that he thought that violence was a legitimate political tool.