and yes, it's beyond disheartening to learn the history of that era, and both terrifying and depressing to see all the parallels to what is happening in the US today.
Another parallel between the two, beyond the ones already pointed out in this thread, is that both democracies were flawed from the start. The Weimar Republic had a constitution that was prone to inaction and partisan division, and contained the absolute poison pill that enabled the legislature to declare "s state of emergency" giving the executive dictatorial power. It was never foreseen by the drafters that someone like Hitler would arise to put that provision to such horrific use.
The US Constitution, with its bias toward rural, unpopulated areas, manifest in both the Senate and the Electoral College, allows a distinct minority of voters a hugely disproporationate say in how the country is run. Among other things it leads to a reactionary Supreme Court and judiciary overall--also a problem in Weimar--the selection of disasters such as Bush II and Trump, and gridlock during times of crisis, which in turn lead to disillusion with democracy in general and disgust with the status quo. Add in an existential crisis--a collapsed economy in the case of Germany, a pandemic and climate change here in the US--and it's a recipe for all that we're seeing now.
Also, the focus by the GOP on "culture wars" has a distinct Nazi-like flavor. In Germany it was backlash against gay rights, women's relative emancipation, the rise of Berlin as a center of the avante garde in film, art, music, architecture, not to mention the loosening of sexual strictures in general. People tend to forget--actually most of us never learned to begin with--that Germany in the 1920s was among the most progressive places on earth, at least in Berlin and the larger cities. Rural areas were dominated by conservatives who professed to be appalled at "the decadence" they saw rising in the culture all around them. The Nazis played on this incessantly, scapegoating Jews and gay people and immigrants and liberals such as Social Democrats.
Finally, there was an "all or nothing" tendency of the far left that today seems self defeating to the point of nihilism. As in America, much of this was due to the influence of--wait for it!--Russia, in the form of Stalin, the Soviet Union, and the Comintern, which directed German communists to ignore the Nazis as a passing phase, and focus their wrath on liberals such as the Social Democrats--whom they called "Social Fascists." They too used the flaws in the Weimar constitution to impede any meaningful response to the crises of the time. They actually thought Hitler coming to power was a good thing, that it would hasten a communist revolution and bring about the dictatorship of the proletariat. Susan Sarandon would have fit right in with her "Trump will bring on the revolution" rhetoric.
We in American have some factors going for us that German progressives didn't.
We have a long standing democratic tradition not present in Germany of the time. We are not in the throes of recovering from the trauma of a war that cost millions of dead and disabled millions more. We didn't lose such a war and have now to endure national humiliations such as foreign occupation (by the French and Belgians in the Ruhr) and reparations payments. And we have this history itself, which can be used as both warning and lesson. Claudia Koonz, a historian of the Weimar/Nazi era, has said that Nazi Germany is a virtual case study in how things can go wrong in what is supposed to be a functioning democracy. The Germans had no such example to point to, and thus much of what Hitler and the Nazis did was "unimaginable, unthinkable" until they did it. We don't have to imagine what happens when an industrial power goes full on fascist, we have the example right before us, on the fringe of living memory. And we have the African American community which is at ultimate risk, but the leaders of which understand that risk and are active in doing what they can to save all of us. I think it's absolutely accurate to say that Black women saved democracy from a second Trump turn. I see no dimunition in that activism, and am immensely grateful for those efforts.
I'd like to offer some helpful and hopeful conclusion here, but at the moment I'm at a loss. Passing a solid, enforceable voting rights act is imperative. Somehow limiting the wealth and power of the oligarch class is also a priority. Without the well funded, well oiled right wing media so much of this would not be happening, and taxing these bastards so they have less money to throw into the mix would be a huge help.
Then too: education. We have to bring back the public schools, and make colleges and universities much more accessible to people who aren't ultra rich. This was perhaps the greatest achievement--IMHO--of FDR's New Deal and the GI Bill of Rights--opening the door to higher education to working and middle class kids. It was also the first thing Reagan went after, first as governor of California, then as president.
That you were so distressed by what you learned in your history class is evidence of your essential compassion as a human being. Try never to apologize for it or feel bad about it. Compassion and empathy, combined with knowledge and understanding, are still our best hope for the future.
Best wishes.
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