World War Two · SEASON 9
How to Make Aggression Sound Like Defense - Q2 1939
Episode 26 · 2026-08-01
- Documentary
- War & Politics
Episode overview
By the spring of 1939, Hitler’s Germany is no longer merely threatening war, it is preparing to launch one while insisting that every act of aggression is really self-defense. In this episode of Death of Democracy, we look at Germany in the second quarter of 1939: the launch of the battleship Tirpitz, the secret planning for Fall Weiss - the invasion of Poland - Hitler’s 50th-birthday military spectacle, the renunciation of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, the Pact of Steel with Mussolini’s Italy, and the diplomatic moves designed to isolate Poland before the coming attack.
18 minutes
Season 9 episodes
1. How to End Democracy in 60 Days - Death of Democracy Q1 19332026-01-31
2. How Legal Immunity Becomes Absolute Power - Q2 19332026-02-07
3. How to Make the Economy Look Better Than It Is - Q3 19332026-02-14
4. How to Use a Tariff War to Disrupt the World - Q4 19332026-02-21
5. How to Not Clean up the Swamp - Q1 19342026-02-28
6. How to Serve Retribution and Become Popular - Q2 19342026-03-07
7. How to Go From President to King - Death of Democracy 07 - Q3 19342026-03-14
8. How To Indoctrinate the Children - Q4 19342026-03-21
9. How Radio Killed Democracy - Death of Democracy 09 - Q1 19352026-03-28
10. How To Distract From the Economy - Q2 19352026-04-04
11. How to Legalize Scapegoating - Q3 19352026-04-11
12. How to Tank the Economy for War - Q4 19352026-04-18
13. How to Stage (and Win) an International Crisis - Q1 19362026-04-25
14. How to Declare a Live Person Legally Dead - Q2 19362026-05-02
15. How to Make Nazi Germany Look Normal - Q3 19362026-05-09
16. How Hitler Indoctrinated a Generation - Q4 19362026-05-23
17. How the Nazis Got Rich Preparing Germany for War - Q1 19372026-05-30
18. How Hitler Tested His Next War in Spain - Q2 19372026-06-06
19. How to Make Dissent Disappear - Q3 19372026-06-13
20. How to Make War Inevitable - Q4 19372026-06-20
21. How to Steal a Country Without a European War - Q1 19382026-06-27
22. How Hitler Targeted Czechoslovakia - Q2 19382026-07-04
23. How WW2 Really Started: Appeasement! - Q3 19382026-07-11
24. How to Set a Militia Free on a Minority - Q4 19382026-07-18
25. How to Provoke a War - Q1 19392026-07-25
26. How to Make Aggression Sound Like Defense - Q2 19392026-08-01
27. How to Launch the Apocalypse - Q3 19392026-08-08
28. How Not to Be A Nazi - Epilogue2026-08-15
