ned, what do you think of Hitler? surely you must have some deep opinions despite the fact you have no firsthand knowledge of his specific actions since you weren't there. have we been unfair to Hitler these last 80 years or so?
I'm not sure what corner you're trying to back me in to. but hey i'll answer your question...as you said I have no first hand information and while I've read a lot about his economic work and manufacturing success - Albert speer, if I recall correctly. But there's quite a bit of video and writing about his life. What I take from all this is that..in no particular order other than what comes to mind...
- he was a terrible military tactician, although his generals/admirals were very competent
- he was a dictator
- he tried and for a while succeeded in dictating the mindset for the German people through propagnda
- he transformed Germany after the first world war..had really good manufacturing/r&d staff
- he was planning for the long term
- he felt Jews were the case of most problems and developed the plan to eliminate them
- he overextended himself- his military and the country
- he killed himself
I guess there's more but off the top of my head...how'd I do?
Have we been unfair to Hitler? Not sure what your context is there. When you're the loser in a world war, the victor gets to set the narrative. There are so many narratives, some still say there was no holocaust, that Hitler is alive living in Argentina. The majority though believe Hitler was the devil incarnate. I would tend to agree with the latter. And as you said, I have no first hand knowledge and can only base my opinion on opinions of others. I would not say I have deep opinions.