Adolf Hitler Essay, Research Paper

Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in the small town of Branau, Austria. He

was the son a Customs official Alois Hitler, and his father s third wife Klara. As a boy,

Adolf attended church regularly. One day he carved a symbol into the bench which

resembled the Swastika he later used as the symbol of the Nazi party. He was a

good student. He received good marks in most of his classes. However in his last

year of school he failed German and Mathematics, and only succeeded in Gym and

Drawing. He dropped out of school at the age of 16, spending a total of 10 years in

school. From childhood, it was his dream to become an artist or architect. He was

not a bad artist. To fulfill his dream, he moved to Vienna, the capital of Austria

where the Academy of the Arts was located. He failed the first time he tried to get

admission and in the next year, 1907, he tried again and was very sure of success.

To his surprise, he failed again. In fact the Dean of the Academy was not very

impressed with his performance, and gave him a hard time and said to him, “You will

never be painter.” The rejection made him reach a dead end. He could not apply to

the school of architecture, as he had no high-school diploma.

While living in Vienna, Hitler made his living by drawing small pictures of famous

landmarks, which he sold as post cards. However, he was always poor. He was also a

regular reader of a small newspaper that suggested that the Arian race was the

superior race. The paper blamed Communists and Jews for all their economic

problems and Hitler agreed with those views. He continued to live a poor life in

Vienna and in 1913 decided to move to Munich. Being Austrian by birth, Hitler

showed more loyalty to the Germany. His life in Munich was not better then before

and he continued to be poor. Then in 1914, World War I broke out and Hitler saw

this as a great opportunity to show his loyalty to the “fatherland” by volunteering for

the German Imperial army. He did not want to fight in the Austrian Army. In 1918,

Germany surrendered and Hitler was very upset about the loss. He believed that it

was the Jews and the Communists who lost the war for Germany. This was when he

started his intense disliking of Jews. With no real Government to control the country,

many groups tried to take control. Since he could not get a job, Hitler stayed in the

army. Hitler was assigned the job of going to various meetings of groups and to

report on them. On September 12, 1919, Hitler was sent to investigate a small group

that called itself the, “German Workers Party.” He thought it would not even be

worth it to go. At the group they mainly talked about the countries problems and

how the Jews, Communists and others where threatening the master race and

offered their own solutions. He later joined the German Workers Party and was in

charge of propaganda. The party was small at first but Hitler’s great skill with

speeches attracted more and more listeners. It soon became a major party. He

became the group s leader. Then the German government threw Hitler in jail for

trying to overthrow the government.

While spending time in prison, he wrote his famous book, “Mein Kampf,” in which he

states that the Jews and Communists were responsible for economic and social

problems. Of course, people did not start to support him right away after he wrote

the book. He was now the leader of the party which was no longer the Gemans workers

Party. It was the Nazis.

After he came into power, the Nazi party took control over every aspect of everyday

life. Hitler ordered the creation of a special police force to make sure that all

opponents would be eliminated, the Gestapo. They used propaganda against the

Jews and other minority groups, which were enemies. Teachers had to belong to the

Nazi party. Children were taught that Jews were the source of all their problems.

Since the country was in economic chaos after the war because Germany was forced

to pay billions in damages. The Germans saw hope in Hitler. In the late 1920 s, the

depression hit which made the situation even worse.

Hitler in his speeches blamed the Jews and Communists for their misfortunes and

many listened. Unemployment was very high at that time, standing at about 25%.

Hitler also spoke out against the unfairness of the Versailles Treaty. Germany lost a

lot of its territory. He believed the pure Arian race was destined to rule the world. He

preached that all Germans must unite in order for this goal to succeed.

Hitler publicly stated his views on the Jews, the Jews of Germany did not see Hitler

as a great threat at first. However, when Hitler became chancellor and eventually

took over totally they changed their mind. The first thing he did was to take the Jews

their right to vote. Soon they were not allowed to hold positions such as teachers,

doctors or lawyers.

How did Hitler get the Germans to like him? Many looked for answers and hope.

Hitler was an answer to them. He promised to rebuild the Glorious Germany

of the past. First, he started to build up the Wehrmacht. Germany was not

allowed to have more than 100,000 men in its army, but Hitler broke the

treaty and gave orders to increase that number. Factories started putting out

weapons and people now had jobs. To the Germans this was a very good

sign. Little did they know that they would be at war soon.

At first, the Allies did nothing about the fact that Hitler broke the Treaty. He

gave speeches in which he indicated that the German people needed living

space. He marched into the Reihnland, an area Germany lost in WWI. Next,

he moved into Austria, his home country and gained power without a shot

being fired. Following Austria, he wanted control of the Sudetenland, a part of

Czechoslovakia, which was mainly German speaking. The allies did not want

another war so they let Hitler do what he wanted to, but when he attacked

Poland on September 1, 1939 the allies no longer stood by and watched.

Britain and France declared war on Germany a few days after later, World

War II began.

After Germany s army conquered and occupied a territory. the Gestapo

quickly followed. They would round up Jews, Communists, Gypsies,

Homosexuals and other enemies of the German people. They would then be

put on trains. They were sent to concentration camps. Camps such as

Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen Belsen were all equipped with gas chambers to

make the killing process quick. In those camps 6 million Jews and many

others were killed by the Nazis. Hitler’s army seemed unstoppable but in the

end, the allies managed to win many decisive battles. Eventually on, April

30th, 1945 Hitler committed suicide in his bunker by shooting himself in the

mouth, with his new wife Eva Braun. Their bodies were burned, but no one

knows what happened to the “Fuhrer’s” and his wife of one day’s ashes. On

May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally.

Hitler was one of the most, if not the most cruel man to ever walk the face of

the earth. His belief of the “Arian” race being the superior race made him hate

all others. He thought of blacks as being “Sub-human.” Most of all he hated

the Jews. So much that in early 1945, when equipment and manpower was

badly needed on the front Hitler insisted on man and equipment staying and

continuing to transport Jews to the camps. In his testament (will), he left his

money to his family. He also left a message to the Germany people, “Above

all I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous

observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal

prisoner of all peoples, international Jewry.”

The only people which would be spared where the Scandinavians to the north,

since they were closely related to the German race. With Hitler’s death, the

Nazi party quickly fell.

1. Hitler, Adolf.com//data.html

2. Famous World Leaders.org

3. thinkquest.org/17340/Hitler.html

4. Mein Kampf.background//.com

5. Time Encyclopedia

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