FALMOUTH — As America votes in 2016, thoughts go back to 1945 when, with youthful eyes, we witnessed an America celebrating the end of World War II and a nation relieved that “our boys are coming home.”

Elementary school children at the time, we were vague in our understanding of the war’s meaning. Later, when proceeding up the educational ladder, we would become aware that our elders were themselves attempting to understand the meaning of these years now blessedly past – and to learn from the tragic experience. In our election season, we would do well to reflect on this spirit of learning that prevailed in that postwar era.

Amid the celebrations of the end to the loss of so much blood and treasure, and with the horrors of Hitler’s Germany revealed, America pondered how the long nightmare had come to be. How did a Germany steeped in Western civilization, comprised of people who were primarily Christian and lived in a democracy, allow an Adolf Hitler to come to power?

We who were children at that time of victory were to grow up in an America – and in an educational system – committed to understanding this horrific phenomenon.

As teenagers in junior high and high school, we were introduced to this quest. By the time we reached high school, and later in college, we discovered that some of our teachers were now those former “boys” who had returned. Not surprisingly, they taught with an engaging sincerity and with a commitment that the lessons learned never be lost on us.

We learned that by 1930, the German people had suffered greatly. The sacrifices of a lost World War I, the economic catastrophe of inflation and then the Depression put them and their democracy to a severe test.

During the tumultuous decade of the 1920s, Hitler and his Nazi Party made great political gains. This rise to prominence took place despite many warning signs.

Hitler’s deeply flawed character was easily evident. His narcissism, his braggadocio, his opportunistic lies were readily apparent. With skillful demagoguery he appealed to emotions, exploiting the fears and anger of his people.

It was easy for us to contrast Hitler’s approach with our earlier study of our own Abraham Lincoln who, in the midst of America’s greatest crisis, appealed to our reason, built our nation up and urged us to seek “the better angels of our nature.”

Hitler stooped to appeal to the worst nature within his fellow citizens. He tore his country down, he bellowed his campaign theme to make Germany great again – and he boasted that only he could do it. He attacked that which he claimed was foreign within their borders. He drew on the fear of terrorism and preyed on (and, in a sense, prayed for) any evidence of it that he could seize on for political gain.

How, facing this clear and present danger and living in a democracy, did Germans end up with Adolf Hitler? This disastrous result occurred although the German people never gave the Nazi Party a majority vote in a free election. In the final analysis, Hitler did not need a majority vote – merely a plurality.

Unfortunately, the German people did not have the advantage of a two-party system such as ours that would have offered them a choice between two major candidates. They had many parties from which to choose.

Left with several choices on their ballots, voters were able to let rigid ideology, past voting habits and even personal pique guide their individual vote. Each voter who didn’t want to vote for the Nazi Party could select from a multitude of other parties the one party that best matched their own particular political inclinations. Votes were thus dispersed among the many parties rather than combined to support but one major-party candidate opposed to Hitler.

In this way, millions of voters were able to vote with a “clear” conscience: They had not voted for Hitler. In this way, the Nazi Party obtained a plurality. In this way, the path was cleared for Hitler to become Germany’s leader.

Postwar America strove to understand the German political experience. As we Americans cast our ballots in 2016, the lessons learned should serve us well.