YES! It sure was. Chilling is ABSOLUTELY the correct word.
The Allies did a real number on the Germans with their most punitive and destructive Treaty of Versailles.. The Treaty of Versailles and its "War Guilt clause" caused all kinds of problems.
I was in Austria some years ago and our guide had a real snicker at that. She said that Hitler was an AUSTRIAN, not a German but everyone believed that he was a German and the Austrians, snicker, snicker, let the world believe it.
The AUSTRIANS produced the MONSTER, not Germany. She got a real kick out of that. I didn't ever hear that from any other of our tour guides, in either Austria or Germany.
There aren't too many countries that would have taken that kind of treatment lying down. Impoverishing a group of people for any reason creates vendettas that last forever. Oops, I'm mixing metaphors with Italian, English and German. Ach du lieber!
Satan had a real run for his money at some of the HORRIBLE times in human history.
I've READ that Genghis Khan was the biggest killer of all times.
He used to sweep through the countries, slaying and burning all he could. MOST conquerors would leave it at that. But NOOO, not him.
He would RETURN to the devastation a few days later to ferret out any survivors. Those poor souls who had thought they had escaped Khan were slaughtered, so NO ONE survived.
THAT was efficient slaughter and earned him the largest mass murderer ever. I'm sure he felt that it was his destiny or whatever.
Sometime I feel just like the poor old man who knows what is coming, but is completely powerless to do anything about it.
Reminds me of the joke.... "The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven was an Austrian."