Telegraph | Arts | How could Hitler happen?: "Hitler could claim greater democratic legitimacy than Stalin, yet one of the author's central themes is that at no time did a majority of the German people take an electoral decision to surrender to Hitler. He became Chancellor in 1932 after winning 13.7 million votes - 37.4 per cent of all those cast - against 13.1 million for the Social Democrats and Communists in the Reichstag elections. Many post-1945 Western governments have ruled without much larger popular support, however, and few people have questioned their legitimacy.

Evans's point about the Nazi minority is well-taken. But it was surely the manner in which Hitler destroyed democratic institutions once he gained power that was exceptional, not the fragile base of popular support that got him into the chancellery.

The Reichstag fire in February 1933, in the midst of a new election campaign, provided the Nazis with a unique opportunity to embark upon a hysterical, brilliantly-orchestrated propaganda campaign, matched by a state-sponsored reign of terror against the Left."