In this case, Hitler's generals (the fiduciary) were paid to do what they were supposed to do for him (the truster, and not the corrupter) in any case.[4] However, by accepting the gifts, the generals sacrificed the independence and the political clout they had already been losing as the result of the systematic consolidation of Hitler's role as the sole "genius strategist", and would remain chained to Hitler's decisions even when their soldiers and the common people suffered during the last phase of the war. Thus, historians consider the practice, although "not technically illegal" (since the gifts were granted by Hitler himself - who kept the monopoly on gift giving in Nazi Germany),[5] "smacking of corruption" and "having an aura of deliberate corruption from above."[6][7]