‘For fourteen years Germany suffered under a process of decay which is unparalleled in our history. All values were overturned. ‘Evil be thou my God’ was the password. 

The hero was despised and the coward honoured, the upright were punished and the corrupt rewarded. The ordinary decent man could expect nothing but mockery, while the degenerate was lauded to the skies.

Strength was condemned and weakness praised. Quality lost its value and was supplanted by quantity, goodness, which is rare, replaced by evil, which is ubiquitous. The nation’s past was scoffed at and its future denied.

Those who had faith in the nation and its rights were attacked, scoffed at and reviled. Love of the beautiful gave way to a cult of all that was ugly and rotten. What was healthy was no longer the aim of human striving, and the dead and monstrosities became the heroes of a so-called new culture.

The very existence of the nation was threatened by the undermining of all sound principles. Can anyone seriously believe that a nation can be kept in such a state of decay without eventually having to suffer the last consequences of complete collapse?’ Adolf Hitler’s Speech to the German Parliament 30th January 1934.