Before the mid-way twist about Professor Gerhard Hardman turning out to be a half-Jewish and former cop assigned to the Armstrong case, Hardman is supposed to be an Austro-Germanic man whose speeches claim that he is a determined man to win the Germans their pride back. Since the movie takes during the time of Prohibition, it is set after The Great War/World War One, which means 'Professor Hardman' is referring to Germany's defeat at the end of the first world war. His extreme nationalist behavior is implied to be based on the man who rose to control Germany in the late 1930s: Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist Party or simply, the Nazis.There are several other references to Hitler's impending rise to power and his extremist politics throughout the movie, most notably the fact his views on people of the Jewish Faith. Linda Arden, the main mastermind of the conspiracy to revenge-kill Cassetti, reveals that she is Jewish as is her daughters, Helena/Elena Andrenyi and Sonia Armstrong. Also, the Armstrong family (and the murder of their baby) are based on Charles Lindberg's family, whose child was kidnapped and never found. Ironically, Charles Lindberg was a notorious anti-Semite and also a strong supporter of both Hitler's rise to power in Germany as well as keeping America out of the second World War.

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