Welcome to Circa 1945: Breaking the Machine. A podcast of parables about the Holocaust, and what it would take to genocide-proof a society.

Every so often I stumble across a line so perfect it stops me cold.

⁠In the documentary "The Rise of the Nazi Party," author and historian Dr. Michael Lynch said:⁠

"Nazism was like a snowball. It flourished in cold, dark times. But you subject it to sunlight, and it will melt. The economy is the sun."

I wanted to hug him. Because in one sentence he captured everything I’ve been trying to explain for twenty-seven episodes: ideology is climate-dependent. When societies grow cold — economically, morally, spiritually — hate rolls downhill and gather ...