Adolf Hitler. Everyone has heard the name but have you heard the life story? Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. His father was Alois Schickelgruber Hitler. Adolf was very hostile towards his father because his father was very strict and beat him when he did something wrong. His mother’s name was Klara Hitler. He was very close to his mother because she was very comforting and caring. Which made it very hard for him when she died in December 24,1908.

Hitler had many accomplishments in his life. Of those was that he was founder and leader of the Nazi Party. Another was that he was guiding spirit of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. He was also Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Those aren’t necessarily things that we hope to accomplish, but they were pretty big to him.

Hitler left school at age 16 with dreams of becoming a painter. He tried to get into the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. His dreams were shattered when he was rejected. He then spent 5 years of “misery and woe.” During that time he gained a hatred of Jews. This hatred formed while studying the techniques of the Christian mayor, Karl Lueger. Along with hating Jews, he blamed Jews for everything. He blamed Jews for all chaos, corruption, and destruction in culture, politics, and the economy. He also said that Jews exploited press, prostitution, syphilis, capitalism, Marxism, democracy, and pacifism. In 1914, Hitler enrolled as a soldier in the war. While serving as a soldier, he was wounded twice. One of those wounds left him temporarily blind. In 1919, he was sent to spy on political parties. On September 16, 1919, Hitler took his first step to tyranny. He became part of the National Socialist Workers’ Party (NSDAP). Then in July of 1921, he made himself chairman of the NSDAP. Along with becoming chairman, he used the swastika (hand symbol and design) and its greeting, “Heil!” The swastika was made as a symbol of hatred toward Jews. Soon after, Hitler got a bodyguard named Schutzstaffel (SS). On February 24, 1920, the exclusion of Jews from the Volk Community was announced. Then, in 1923, Hitler, along with 3,000 men, marched through Munich, only to be stopped by police. The police then began shooting and the shots left 16 people dead. Due to that event, Hitler was arrested and tried on February 26, 1924. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison but got out after 9 months. Soon after the release, h the released the “bible” for the Nazi Party. The “bible” consisted of Social Darwinism, racial myth, anti- Semitism, and lebensraum fantasy. By 1939, five million copies of the “bible” had been sold. It had also been translated into 11 different languages. In January of 1925, the ban on the Nazi Party was removed. Also in January of 1925, Hitler regained permission to speak in public. In the 1930 elections for the Reichstag, Hitler and the Nazi Party’s votes went from 810,000 to 6,409,000 votes. Those votes were worth 107 seats in the government. The Reich was like that of a president‘s cabinet. In February of 1932, Hitler acquired German citizenship and decided to run for President. He received 13,418,011 votes against von Hindenburg. Hindenburg received 19,359,650 votes. In July of 1932, at the Reichstag elections, Hitler received 14 million votes and earned 230 seats. There were more Reichstag elections that November. At those elections, Hitler received 11 million votes and 196 seats. On January 30, 1033, Franz von Papen made the mistake of persuading von Hindenburg to nominate Hitler as Reich Chancellor. In June of 1934, the Blood Purge confirmed Hitler as dictator of the Third Reich. In August of 1934, the death of von Hindenburg left all the powers of State in Hitler’s hands. In 1935, Hitler made the army 5x the permitted size. In February of 1938, Hitler dismissed 16 senior generals and took command of the Armed Forces. On September 1, 1939, Hitler and the Nazi’s invaded Poland. That marked the first phase of World War II being dominated. Hitler accomplished that with German Blitzkrieg tactics. German Blitzkrieg tactics were sudden shock attacks against airfields, communications, military installations, and fighter aircraft. Hitler overran Poland in less than one month. Denmark and Norway were overrun in 2 months. Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France were all overrun in 6 weeks. The Battle of Britain was Hitler’s first setback. The Royal Air Force had prevented Luftwaffe from securing aerial control over the English Channel. That caused the invasion of the British Isles to be postponed. In January of 1939, Hitler made a speech in which he said, “ if the international Jewry within and outside Europe should succeed once more in dragging nations into a war, the result will be, not the Bulshevization of the world and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.” Which basically meant that he was blaming the Jews for the war. The “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was initialized in 1941. This planned the liquidation of all Jews in Germany. On July 20, 1944, anti-Nazi Resistance took a stand and attempted to assassinate the Fuhrer. Unfortunately, they failed. When Hitler was informed, he gave specific directions on how to kill them. He happily watched as they were executed. In 1945, unfortunately, Hitler succeeded in killing 6 million Jews. On April 29, 1945, Hitler married Eva Braun. He also dictated his final political testament. He finished that with saying, “Above all, I charge the leaders of the nation and those and them to scrupulous observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal prisoner of all peoples, international Jewry.” The day after, Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a pistol. The same day as Hitler’s death, Eva Braun, the lady he had married the day before, died as well. I am not sure how many people died due to Hitler but I know that it was much too many because no one deserves to die.