Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (Dorpalen Microsoft Encarta 98) Eighteen ninety-nine was the year of his birth. He was a poor boy and a high school dropout. He was rejected twice from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna for lack of talent. (The Volume Library 2 Pg. 1745) At age 25, Hitler eagerly volunteered to serve in W. W. I. His fellow soldiers were unlike him. They would always talk about bad food and women but he would prefer to discuss history or art. Despite his early luck during the first two years of the war, he was later injured twice and decorated twice with the Iron Cross.
After the war, Hitler joined a growing Nazi Party and soon became its leader. By 1930, he helped make the Nazi Party the second largest in the country. (The Volume Library 2 Pg. 1745 When he organized an uprising he was placed on trial for treason. He didnt try to deny what he had done, but openly declared that he wanted to overthrow Germanys new democratic government. Hitler was allowed to use the trial as propaganda for the Nazi party. In the end he wound up with a five year sentence and possible parole in six months.
While in jail he was accommodated well. He even had his own secretary, Rudolph Hess. Hess wrote down every word out of Hitlers mouth. Eventually, this turned into Hitlers book, Mein Kampf. (My Struggle) In this book, Hitler describes his early childhood and also his views about different human races. To him, the supreme race was the Aryans; white, blonde, Germans. The most inferior of the races was the Jews. He believed they were dirty, sly, crafty, liars, and the mortal enemy of the Aryans. This book showed his true personality and was a warning to the world.
A warning which was mostly ignored. (AOL 12/15/98 Hitlers Book-Mein Kampf) On January30, 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Vice-chancellor Franz von Papen was a non-Nazi selected to keep Hitlers power in check. (Wait Pg. 11) In fact, Vice chancellor Papen stated, Within two months we will have pushed Hitler so far in the corner that hell squeak. Many of the non-Nazi leaders thought having Hitler as a leader would be an advantage for them. They realized he had a great speech giving ability and they wanted to use it to convey their views.
Hopefully, they thought, he would ruin the democracy and then they could elect a new leader. They wanted to go back to the old days of the Kaiser. But one person saw this event as an extremely bad thing. It was one of Hitlers old comrades, General Erich Ludendorff. This was the telegram he sent to President Hindenburg after appointing Hitler chancellor: By appointing Hitler Chancellor of the Reich you have handed over our sacred German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time.
I prophesy to you this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will inflict immeasurable woe on our nation. Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action. (AOL 1/2/99 Hitler Named Chancellor) On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building was set afire. The Reichstag was the building were the German government conducted everyday business. No one is sure exactly who did it and how it happened but here are what historians believe. The Nazi leaders had been planning to burn the Reichstag to cause a panic by blaming the fire on communists.
By an amazing coincidence, there was an insane communist planing a one man revolt. He wanted to burn government buildings. His name was Marinus van der Lubbe. Nazi storm troopers were said to befriend him and persuade him to burn the Reichstag. They probably also helped him. When Hitler and the other Nazi leaders got there they were screaming false charges against the communists. Hitler also described the fire as a beacon from heaven and This fire is the beginning. The next morning, Hitler held a cabinet meeting.
He demanded an emergency decree that stated: Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed. ” This was a decree for the protection of people and the State.
Basically, this gave Hitler and his administration an excuse to search and arrest innocent communists and other groups of people he did not like without a warrant. The last free elections were held on March 5, 1933. Now what Hitler wanted the whole time was within his reach: dictatorship. All Hitler had to do was get a decree passed that would throw out the rules of democracy and give him absolute power. He would need a two thirds majority in the Reichstag to get the decree passed. AOL 1/2/99 The Reichstag Burns)
When they held the vote on March 23, 1933, Nazi storm troopers lined the hall to be a visual threat an anyone who wanted to oppose Hitler. Only 84 people dared to vote against Hitler. Finally he had his dictatorship. He now was the law maker and the judge at the same time. Now focused his attention on his hatred of Jews. (AOL 1/2/99 Hitler Becomes Dictator) In 1939, Hitler launched what would become World War II by invading and conquering Poland. (Crozier Pg. 146)
But even before he started W. W. II he began his war against the Jews. It started on April 1, 1933. He ordered that no one should buy anything from a Jewish store for that day. He was pleasantly surprised when almost every German listened. By the end of April Jews were not allowed to work in government jobs, slaughter animals, and be admitted to German universities. Rossel Pg. 32) Once he started conquering other countries he forced them to pass laws like the Germans against the Jews.
He would spread lies of anti-Semitism making other people feel hatred against the Jews. Rossel Pg. 50) At this time Jews were being sent to concentration or death camps and also walled in ghettos. The biggest ghetto was in Warsaw, Poland. About a half million Jews were squeezed into a few city blocks. Conditions were horrible and epidemics spread quickly since there were so many people placed in such a small area. As you could imagine life was not pleasant in the Warsaw ghetto or any of the other ghettos. (Rossel Pg. 57) If you could imagine, concentration camps were even worse. Auschwitz was the largest camp in Europe.
Almost 2 million people were murdered there. The prisoners there were fed a thin, hardly nutritious soup. Sometimes they wouldnt get food in for days. They were also forced to do labor to support the German army. Life was a living hell. Thats if you were not killed as soon as you got there. If you were not useful to the Germans, they would send you to be killed. Usually they would exterminate large groups of people at one time by placing them into gas chambers. The gas chambers were originally Hitlers idea.
He got it from remembering a gas attack during W. W. I. Now you can see how sick his mind was. The concentration camps were the final solution of what to do with the Jews. (Rossel Pg. 72) With all this anti-Jew absurdity there was still W. W. II to fight. At first Hitler was winning. He conquered Poland and had France and Britain trapped. Then he made a mistake and tried to defeat them with his airforce. Britains airforce was to powerful for Hitler and he was forced to retreat. Then, driven by his hatred of communism, he invaded the USSR.
Hitler greatly underestimated their strength. He failed to capture Stalingrad between 1942-1943. This was the turning point of Germanys war. When Hitler realized what was happening, his hatred of the Jews increased and even more of them were annihilated. As time went by, Hitler finally realized Germanys imminent defeat and on April 30, 1945 committed suicide with his long time mistress, Eva Brauwn. (Dorpalen Microsoft Encarta) Hitler was obviously successful. You would ask why because he said everything out of hatred and it didnt make any sense.
When he became chancellor the German people were willing to be led. They were unemployed and dissatisfied with their current government. He also knew how to appeal to peoples emotions in his speech. In conclusion, you can see Hitler, although completely evil, had a huge influence on the world. He caused nothing but destruction. Nothing that he built or instituted remains today. The Jews and Germans today are scarred and will never forget their roots. Hitler was a murdering, hateful, sinister man.
