Jack Mayer, author of Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project, presents a talk about the turbulent history of Germany’s Weimar democracy after World War I and the rise of Nazism. This history is the basis for his new historical fiction, Before the Court of Heaven, based on the true story of the 1922 assassination of Weimar’s highest ranking Jew – Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau – and the subsequent trial of the conspirators, the seeds of Hitler’s dictatorship. Dr. Mayer’s discussion fleshes out the remarkable historical events and considers how they led ordinary people to become complicit in extraordinary crimes. This talk is sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. Filmed by Chris Kirby for Ilsley Public Library and Middlebury Community Television 9/22/16.