You know, there is a fallacy in this "beating"->"obedience" parallel.
At first, there are such things called teenagers. They forget everything parents did to them and do on their own. So children who had been raised in a strict discipline can usually be punks & anarchists in their teens (as even some people in comments noticed).
Second, not everyone went to war because of their "learned obedience". There were a million of other factors.
So that all "beating"->"fascists" part looked a bit too stretched to me, and almost starting to look like yet-another anarchist flyer.
But there is a very good point in this story - that rising your children relying only on obedience is wrong. And I completely agree with it.
The other family did the right thing. And adding parents behavior as an example for kids will also count good.
So if you want your children to question authorities and not obey dumb orders - do that yourself too, and make yourself a good example for your kid to look at.