Holocaust
- Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the
Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Imperial chancellor) of Germany
from 1933 to his death. He was leader of the National Socialist German
Workers Party (NSDAP), better known as the Nazi Party.
At the height of his power, the armies of Nazi Germany and its Axis
Powers dominated much of Europe during World War II. The racial policies
that Hitler directed culminated in a massive number of deaths commonly
cited at over 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, in a genocide
now known as the Holocaust.
Hitler led Germany from the depths of post-World War I defeat to become
one of the world's most powerful nations. Nevertheless, the Allies
ultimately defeated Germany. In the final days of the war, Hitler
commited suicide in a Berlin bunker. His intended thousand-year Reich
ended shortly thereafter.
Early life
Childhood
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 at Braunau am Inn, Austria, a
small town 90 km (55 miles) west of Linz in the province of Upper
Austria, not far from the German border in what was then
Austria-Hungary. He was the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler
(1837–1903), a customs official, and Klara Pölzl, Alois' niece and third
wife. Of these six children, only Adolf and his younger sister Paula
reached adulthood. Alois Hitler also had a son (Alois Junior) and a
daughter (Angela) by his second wife. In Mein Kampf, his autobiography,
Adolf Hitler describes his father as an "irascible tyrant"; however,
there is little indication that Alois Hitler treated his son more
strictly than was usual for that time and place.
Alois Hitler was born out of wedlock, and, until he was 40, used his
mother's surname, Schicklgruber. In 1876, he began using the name of his
stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler, after visiting a priest responsible
for birth registries and declaring that Georg was his father (Alois gave
the impression that Georg was still alive, but he was long dead). The
spelling was probably changed by a clerk. Later, Adolf was accused by
his political enemies of not rightfully being a Hitler, but a
Schicklgruber. This was also exploited in Allied propaganda during the
Second World War when pamphlets bearing the phrase "Heil Schicklgruber"
were airdropped over German cities. He was legally born a Hitler,
however, and was ironically closely related to Hiedler through his
mother's family, too.
Hitler did not know for sure who his paternal grandfather was, but it
was probably either Johann Georg Hiedler or his brother Johann von
Nepomuk Hiedler. There have been rumours that Hitler was one-quarter
Jewish and that his grandmother Maria Schicklgruber had become pregnant
after working as a servant in a Jewish household in Graz. During the
1920s, the implications of this along with his known family history were
politically explosive, especially for the proponent of a racist
ideology. Opponents tried to prove that Hitler, the leader of the
anti-Semitic and jingoistic Nazi Party, had Jewish or Czech ancestors.
Although these rumours were never confirmed, for Hitler they were reason
enough to conceal his origins. Soviet propaganda insisted he was a Jew,
though newer research tends to diminish the probability Hitler had
Jewish or Czech ancestors. Historians such as Werner Maser and Ian
Kershaw argue this was impossible since the Jews had been expelled from
Graz in the 15th century and were not allowed to return until well after
Maria Schicklgruber's alleged employment.[1] Because of Alois Hitler's
profession his family moved frequently, from Braunau to Passau, Lambach,
Leonding and next to Linz. Young Adolf was reportedly a good student at
the various elementary schools he attended; however, in sixth grade
(1900–1901), his first year of high school (Realschule) in Linz, he
failed completely and had to repeat the grade. His teachers reported
that he had "no desire to work."
Hitler later explained this as a kind of rebellion against his father
Alois, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career as a customs
official, although Adolf wanted to become a painter. This is further
supported by Hitler's later description of himself as a misunderstood
artist. After Hitler's father died on January 3, 1903, at age 65, Adolf
Hitler's schoolwork did not improve. At the age of 16, Hitler left
school without graduating.
Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich
From 1905 onward, Hitler was able to live the life of a Bohemian on a
fatherless child's pension and support from his mother. After he was
rejected twice by the Academy of Arts in Vienna (1907–1908) for "lack of
talent"—which he resented deeply—he did not try to find a different job
or learn a profession. He was told he should become an architect, since
he had some flair for painting buildings. On December 21, 1907, his
mother Klara died a painful death from breast cancer. He gave his share
of the orphans' benefits to his younger sister Paula, but soon after
inherited some money from an aunt. He worked as a struggling painter in
Vienna, copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to
merchants and tourists (there is evidence he produced over 2000
paintings and drawings before World War I).
It was in Vienna that Hitler began to turn into an active anti-Semite,
which was a common stance among Austrians at the time and deeply
ingrained in the Catholic culture that Hitler grew up in. Vienna had a
large Jewish community, including many Orthodox Jews from Eastern
Europe. He was influenced by the pseudoscientific and neo-religious
writings of the race ideologist and anti-Semite Lanz von Liebenfels and
polemics from politicians such as Karl Lueger, the Mayor of Vienna, and
Georg Ritter von Schönerer, the leader of the pan-Germanistic movement.
Hitler acquired a belief in the superiority of the "Aryan race," which
formed the basis of his political views. He began to claim the Jews were
natural enemies of "Aryans" and were responsible for Germany's economic
problems. However, according to August Kubizek, his close friend and
roommate at the time, he was more interested in the operas of Richard
Wagner than in politics.
After the second refusal from the Academy of Arts, Hitler gradually ran
out of money. By 1909, he sought refuge in a homeless shelter, and by
the beginning of 1910 had settled permanently into a house for poor
working men. He made spending money by painting tourist postcards of
Vienna scenery. His anti-Semitism during this period has been debated
somewhat, since a Jewish resident of the house named Hanisch was helping
him sell his postcards— seemingly contrary to statements he later made
in Mein Kampf.
He was given a small inheritance from his father in May 1913 and moved
to Munich. He later wrote in Mein Kampf that he had always longed to
live in a German city. In Munich, he became more interested in
architecture and the racist writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
Moving to Munich also helped him escape military service in Austria for
a time, but the Austrian army later arrested him. After a physical exam
(during which his height was measured at 1.73 m, or 5'8") and a contrite
plea, he was found unfit for service and allowed to return to Munich.
However, when Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he immediately
enlisted in the Bavarian army.
World War I
Hitler saw active service in France and Belgium as a messenger for the
16th Bavarian reserve infantry regiment, which exposed him to enemy
fire. He also drew some cartoons and instructional drawings for the army
newspaper. He was twice cited for bravery in action, receiving the Iron
Cross, Second Class, in December 1915 and the Iron Cross, First Class in
August 1918. (This was an honour rarely given to corporals. The fact
that he was not a German citizen at that time, and therefore could not
be promoted beyond corporal, might have been significant.) In October
1916, in northern France, Hitler was wounded in the leg. At the
beginning of March 1917 he returned to the front.
Hitler was considered a "correct" soldier but was reportedly unpopular
with his comrades because of an uncritical attitude towards officers.
"Respect the superior, don't contradict anybody, obey blindly," he said,
describing his attitude while on trial for his Beer Hall Putsch in 1924.
One comrade later remarked, "we all grumbled on him and found it
intolerable that we had a white raven among us." (Haiden, 1936)
On October 15, 1918, shortly before the end of war, Hitler was admitted
to a field hospital, temporarily blind following a poison gas attack.
Recent research by Bernhard Horstmann however indicates the blindness
may have been the result of a hysterical reaction to Germany's military
defeat. Hitler was treated by a military physician who specialised in
psychiatry. He reportedly diagnosed the corporal as "incompetent to
command people" and "dangerously psychotic." His commander at the time
said, "I will never promote this hysteric!" (cited from Haiden, 1937).
However, historian Sebastian Haffner refers to Hitler's experience at
the front as his only education and suggests he did have at least some
understanding of the military.
During the war, Hitler became a passionate German patriot, although he
did not become a German citizen until 1932. He was shocked by the
capitulation of Germany in November 1918 while the German army remained
(in popular German belief) undefeated. Like many other German
nationalists, Hitler blamed civilian politicians (the "November
criminals") for the surrender. The widespread right-wing, conservative
explanation for the capitulation was the Dolchstosslegende ("dagger-stab
legend") which purported that behind the backs of the army, liberal
politicians had betrayed and "stabbed" Germany's people and its soldiers
"in the back." The Treaty of Versailles imposed crippling reparations
and declared Germany guilty for the Great War horrors; thus was
perceived by most Germans as a humiliation and was an important factor
in the social conditions encountered by Hitler and his party in seeking
power.
Weimar Republic
Early Nazi Party
After the war, Hitler remained in the army, which was mainly engaged in
suppressing socialist uprisings breaking out across Germany, including
Munich, where Hitler returned in 1919. He took part in "national
thinking" courses organised by the Education and Propaganda Department
(Dept Ib/P) of the Bavarian Reichswehr Group, Headquarters 4 under
Captain Mayr. A key purpose of this group was to create a scapegoat for
the outbreak of the war and Germany's defeat. The scapegoats were found
in "international Jewry," communists and politicians across the party
spectrum.
In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a V-Mann (Verbindungsmann is the
German term for a police spy) of "Aufklärungskommando" ("Intelligence
Commando") of the Reichswehr, for the purpose of influencing other
soldiers towards similar ideas and was assigned to infiltrate a small
nationalist party, the German Workers' Party (DAP). Here Hitler met
Dietrich Eckart, one of the early founders of the party.[2]
Adolf Hitler's membership card for the German Workers' Party. Hitler
wanted to create his own party, but was ordered by his superiors in the
Reichswehr to infiltrate an existing one instead.
Enlarge
Adolf Hitler's membership card for the German Workers' Party. Hitler
wanted to create his own party, but was ordered by his superiors in the
Reichswehr to infiltrate an existing one instead.
Hitler was discharged from the army in 1920 and (with the army's
continued encouragement) began participating full time in the party's
activities. He soon became its leader and changed its name to the
National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), usually known as the Nazi party .
Hitler's street-corner oratory, attacking Jews, socialists and liberals,
capitalists and Communists, began attracting adherents. Early followers
included Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, and Ernst Röhm, head of the Nazis'
paramilitary organisation, the SA. Another admirer was wartime General
Erich Ludendorff. Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a front in an
attempt to seize power in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, in an abortive
coup later known as the "Hitler Putsch" or "March to Berlin" of November
8, 1923. The Nazis marched from a beer hall to the Bavarian War
Ministry, intending to overthrow Bavaria's right-wing separatist
government and then march on Berlin. The army quickly dispersed them and
Hitler was arrested. To protect his own position, Hitler appointed
Alfred Rosenberg as temporary leader of the group.
Upon being arrested, Hitler found himself in an environment somewhat
receptive to his beliefs. During his trial for high treason in April
1924, sympathetic conservative magistrates left over from pre-Weimar
allowed Hitler to turn the debacle into a propaganda stunt. Hitler was
allotted unlimited amounts of time to present his arguments to the
courts as well as a large body of the German people, and gave his
popularity a boost by voicing sentiments shared by the public. For a
crime of conspiracy against his nation, Hitler was sentenced to five
years' imprisonment at Landsberg prison, where he received favoured
treatment from the guards and had much fan mail from admirers. While at
Landsberg he dictated his political book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to his
deputy Rudolf Hess. The first volume, called "Abrechnung" (payback), was
later published and became the platform of the Nazi party (by the late
1930s nearly every household in Germany had a copy of it). Meanwhile, as
he was considered relatively harmless, Hitler was given an early amnesty
and was released in December 1924. By this time the Nazi party had
dwindled and Hitler began a long effort to rebuild it.
A key element of Hitler's appeal was his ability to convey a sense of
offended national pride caused by the Treaty of Versailles imposed on
the defeated German Empire by the Allies. Germany had lost territory in
Europe and its colonies, had had to admit to sole responsibility for the
war and pay a huge reparations bill totaling $6,600,000 (32 billion
marks). Most Germans bitterly resented these terms, but early attempts
to gain support by blaming these humiliations on "international Jewry"
were not particularly successful with the electorate. The party learned
quickly and soon a more subtle propaganda emerged, combining
anti-Semitism with an attack on the failures of the "Weimar system" and
the parties supporting it.
In 2004, it was discovered that Hitler had spent years evading taxes on
income from sales of Mein Kampf. He owed the German government 405,000
Reichmarks (equivalent to $8 million at 2004 exchange rates) by the time
he took power and the tax debt was forgiven.
The road to power
The political turning point for Hitler came with the Depression which
hit Germany in 1930. The democratic regime established in Germany in
1919 (the Weimar Republic) had never been accepted by conservatives and
was openly opposed by fascists. The Social Democrats and traditional
parties of the centre and right were unable to cope with the shock of
the Depression. In the September 1930 elections the Nazis suddenly rose
from relative obscurity to win 18.3% of the vote along with 107 seats in
the Reichstag, becoming the second largest party in Germany.
Hitler appealed to the bulk of German farmers, war veterans and the
middle-class, who had been hard-hit by both the inflation of the 1920s
and the unemployment of the Depression. The urban working classes
generally ignored Hitler's appeals and Berlin and the Ruhr towns were
particularly hostile. The 1930 election was a disaster for Heinrich
Brüning's centre-right government, which was now deprived of a majority
in the Reichstag.
Meanwhile in December 1931 Hitler's niece Geli Raubal was found dead in
her bedroom in his Munich apartment (his half-sister Angela and her
daughter Geli had been with him in Munich since 1929), an apparent
suicide. Geli was much younger than he was, and she had used his gun,
drawing rumours of a relationship between the two. There is still
speculation regarding the circumstances of her death, which is viewed as
an event of lasting turmoil for Adolf, and is often stated as the source
of his claimed vegetarianism.
While Brüning's austerity measures were bringing little economic
improvement, the government was anxious to avoid a presidential election
in 1932 and hoped to secure Nazi agreement to an extension of President
Paul von Hindenburg's term. Hitler refused and ultimately competed
against Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election, coming in second
on both rounds of the election. He attained more than 35% of the vote
during the second round in April.
Hindenburg dismissed the government, appointing a new one under the
conservative Franz von Papen, which immediately called for new Reichstag
elections. In July 1932 the Nazis had their best election showing yet,
winning 230 seats and becoming the largest party in the Reichstag. Since
the Nazis and the communists now together controlled a majority of the
Reichstag, the formation of a stable government of mainstream parties
had become impossible. After a vote of no-confidence in the Papen
government, supported by 84% of the delegates, the new Reichstag was
dissolved and new elections were called.
Papen and the Centre Party (Zentrumspartei) began negotiations to secure
Nazi participation in the new government but Hitler set high terms,
demanding the Chancellorship along with the President's agreement that
he be able to use emergency powers. The offer was rebuffed, and combined
with the Nazis' failure to win working class support, some Nazi
supporters were alienated. During the November 1932 elections the Nazis
lost votes although they remained by far the largest party in the
Reichstag. Since Papen had failed to secure a majority, Hindenburg
dismissed him and appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who promised he
could secure a majority government by negotiations with both Social
Democratic labour unions and the dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor
Strasser.
In November 1932, Fritz Thyssen, Hjalmar Schacht and other leading
German businessmen appealed to Hindenburg in a letter to appoint Hitler
as leader of a non-democratic government "independent from parliamentary
parties" which could turn into a a movement that would "enrapture
millions of people." [3] Finally, Papen and Alfred Hugenberg (Chairman
of the German National People's Party, the DNVP, which before the Nazis
were Germany's principal right-wing party) conspired to persuade
Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor in a coalition with the DNVP,
promising they would be able to control him. When Schleicher was forced
to admit failure in his efforts to form a coalition and asked Hindenburg
for yet another Reichstag dissolution, Hindenburg fired him and
appointed Hitler Chancellor, Papen Vice-Chancellor and Hugenberg
Minister of Economics in a cabinet which included only three Nazis,
Hitler, Göring and Wilhelm Frick. On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler was
officially sworn in as Chancellor in the Reichstag chamber with
thousands of Nazi supporters looking on and cheering.
After the Reichstag was set on fire (and the communists were blamed for
it), the Reichstag Fire Decree suspended civil liberties. Subsequently,
in the March 1933 elections the Nazis received 43.9% of the vote. The
party gained control of a majority of seats in the Reichstag through a
formal coalition with the DNVP. The Enabling Act, passed by the
Reichstag after the Nazis expelled the Communist deputies, gave Hitler
dictatorial authority. Under the Enabling Act the Nazi cabinet had the
power to pass legislation just as the Reichstag did. The Act further
specified that the cabinet could only approve measures submitted by the
Chancellor (Hitler) and that it would lapse after four years time or
upon the installation of a new government. The Enabling Act was
dutifully renewed every four years, even during World War II.
A series of decrees followed soon after the passage of the Enabling Act.
Other parties were suppressed and all opposition was banned. In only a
few months Hitler had achieved authoritarian control. President Paul von
Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934. Rather than have new presidential
elections, Hitler's cabinet passed a law combining the offices of
President and Chancellor, with Hitler holding both offices (including
the President's decree powers) as "Leader and National Chancellor." This
consolidation was claimed by the Nazis to be approved by the electorate
in what was actually a show election (the outcome was 90% "approval") in
mid-August 1934. Then, in an unprecedented step, Hitler ordered every
member of the military to swear a personal oath of allegiance to him.
The Third Reich
Having secured supreme political power without an electoral mandate from
the majority of Germans, Hitler went on to gain their support and
remained overwhelmingly popular until the very end of his regime. He was
a master orator and with all of Germany's mass media under the control
of his propaganda chief, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, he persuaded most Germans
he was their saviour from the Depression, the Communists, the Versailles
Treaty and the Jews.
Economics and culture
Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production
and civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt
flotation and expansion of the military. Nazi policies towards women
strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep
house. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms
production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs.
Given this, claims that the German economy achieved near full employment
are at least partly artifacts of propaganda from the era.
Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement
campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams,
autobahns, railroads and other civil works. Hitler's policies emphasised
the importance of family life: Men were the "breadwinners", while
women's priorities were to be "church, kitchen and children", in German
Kirche, Küche und Kinder or "Drei K" (three K's).
Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale, with
Albert Speer becoming famous as the first architect of the Reich. In
1936 Berlin hosted the summer Olympic games, which were opened by Hitler
and choreographed to demonstrate Aryan superiority over all other races.
Olympia, the movie about the games and documentary propaganda films for
the German Nazi Party were directed by Hitler's personal film-maker Leni
Riefenstahl.
Although Hitler made plans for a Breitspurbahn (broad gauge railroad
network), they were pre-empted by World War II. Had the railroad been
built, its gauge would have been three meters, even wider than the old
Great Western Railway of Britain.
In 1932 Hitler was instrumental in initiating the design work on the car
that later became the Volkswagen Beetle
Repression
For the unpersuaded, the SA, SS and Gestapo (secret state police) were
given a free hand. Thousands disappeared into concentration camps. Many
thousands more emigrated, including about half of Germany's Jews.
By 1934 Ernst Röhm's SA had become unpopular with most of the other
influential political and military groups in Germany. Hitler ordered his
lieutenant Himmler to murder Röhm and dozens of other real and potential
enemies during the night of June 29, 1934, the Night of the Long Knives.
Under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, Jews lost their German citizenship and
were expelled from government employment, the professions and most forms
of economic activity. They were also subject to a barrage of hate
propaganda. Few non-Jewish Germans objected to these steps. Restrictions
were further tightened later, particularly after the 1938 anti-Jewish
operation known as Kristallnacht. From 1941 Jews were required to wear a
yellow star in public. Between November 1938 and September 1939 more
than 180,000 Jews fled Germany and the Nazis seized whatever property
they left behind.
Rearmament and new alliances
In March 1935 Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles by
reintroducing conscription in Germany. He set about building a massive
military machine, including a new Navy (the Kriegsmarine) and an Air
Force (the Luftwaffe). The enlistment of vast numbers of men and women
in the new military seemed to solve unemployment problems but seriously
distorted the economy.
In March 1936 he again violated the Treaty of Versailles by reoccupying
the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland. When Britain and France did
nothing, he grew bolder. In July 1936 the Spanish Civil War began when
the military, led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the
elected Popular Front government of Spain. Hitler sent troops to support
Franco and Spain served as a testing ground for Germany's new armed
forces and their methods, including the bombing of undefended towns such
as Guernica, which was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in April 1937,
prompting Pablo Picasso's famous eponymous painting (see Guernica
(painting)).
An Axis was declared between Germany and Italy by Galeazzo Ciano,
foreign minister of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on October 25,
1936. This alliance was later expanded to include Japan, Hungary,
Romania and Bulgaria. They were collectively known as the Axis Powers.
Then on November 5, 1937 at the Reich Chancellory, Adolf Hitler held a
secret meeting and stated his plans for acquiring "living space"
(Lebensraum) for the German people.
The Holocaust
Between 1939 and 1945 the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments
and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed
approximately 11 million people (6 million of whom were Jews[5]) in
concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less
systematic methods elsewhere.[6] Besides being gassed to death, many
also died of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers.
Along with Jews, alleged communists or political opposition,
homosexuals, dissenting Roman Catholics and Protestants, Roma, the
physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war,
Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and
psychiatric patients were killed. The industrial-scale genocide of Jews
in Europe during this period is referred to as the Holocaust.
The massacres that led to the coining of the word "genocide" (the
Endlösung or "Final Solution") were planned and ordered by leading
Nazis, with Himmler playing a key role. While no specific order from
Hitler authorising the mass killing of the Jews has surfaced, there is
documentation he approved the Einsatzgruppen and the evidence also
suggests that sometime in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler agreed in
principle on mass murder by gassing. To make for smoother
intra-governmental cooperation in the implementation of this "Final
Solution" to the "Jewish question", the Wannsee conference was held near
Berlin on January 20, 1942 with fifteen senior officials participating,
led by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. The records of this meeting
provide the clearest evidence of central planning for the Holocaust.
Days later, on February 22, Hitler was recorded saying to his closest
associates "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".
World War II
Opening moves
On March 12, 1938 Hitler pressured his native Austria into unification
with Germany (the Anschluss) and made a triumphal entry into Vienna.
Next he intensified a crisis over the German-speaking Sudetenland
district of Czechoslovakia. This led to the Munich Agreement of
September 1938, which British prime minister Neville Chamberlain hailed
as "Peace in our time". At Munich, Britain and France had weakly given
way to his demands, averting war but failing to save Czechoslovakia. As
a result of the summit Hitler was Time Magazine's Man of the Year in
1938.
Hitler ordered Germany's army to enter Prague on March 10, 1939,
claiming territories ceded to Poland under the Versailles Treaty.
Britain had not been able to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union
for an alliance against Germany, and, on August 23, 1939, Hitler
concluded a secret non-aggression pact (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
with Stalin. On September 1 Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France,
who had guaranteed assistance to Poland, declared war on Germany.
After conquering Poland by the end of September, Hitler built up his
forces much further during what was colloquially called the Sitzkrieg
(sitting war). The Sitzkrieg ended in March 1940 when he ordered German
forces to march into Denmark and Norway. In May 1940, Hitler ordered his
forces to attack France, conquering the Netherlands, Luxembourg and
Belgium in the process. France surrendered on June 22, 1940. This string
of victories convinced his main ally, Benito Mussolini of Italy, to join
the war on Hitler's side in May 1940.
Britain, whose forces had been driven from France at the coastal town of
Dunkirk, continued to fight on alone. After having his overtures for
peace systematically rejected by the British Government, now led by
Winston Churchill, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the British Isles,
leading to the Battle of Britain, which was meant to be the prelude of a
German invasion. However, the RAF defeated the Luftwaffe by the end of
October 1940, and Hitler therefore ordered bombing raids to be carried
out on British cities, including London and Coventry, mostly at night.
This was the so-called Blitz and it lasted until May 1941.
On June 22, 1941 Hitler gave the signal for three million German troops
to attack the Soviet Union, breaking the non-aggression pact he had
concluded with Stalin less than two years earlier. This invasion, called
Operation Barbarossa, seized huge amounts of territory, especially the
Baltic states and Ukraine, resulting in the destruction of many Soviet
forces. German forces were stopped short of Moscow in December 1941 by a
harsh winter and fierce Soviet resistance, however (see Battle of
Moscow), and the invasion failed to achieve the quick triumph over the
Soviet Union which Hitler had anticipated.
Path to defeat
Hitler's declaration of war against the United States on December 11,
1941, (which arguably was called for by Germany's treaty with Japan) set
him against a coalition that included the world's largest empire (the
British Empire), the world's greatest industrial and financial power
(the USA), and the world's largest nation (the Soviet Union).
In late 1942, German forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel were
defeated in the battle of El Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize
the Suez Canal and the Middle East. In February of 1943, the months-long
Battle of Stalingrad ended with the complete destruction of the German
forces there by armies of the Soviet Union. Both defeats were turning
points in the war. After these, the quality of Hitler's military
judgement became increasingly erratic and Germany's military and
economic position deteriorated. His health was deteriorating too. His
left hand started shaking uncontrollably. The biographer Ian Kershaw
believes he suffered from Parkinson's disease. Other conditions that are
suspected by some to have caused some (at least) of his symptoms are
methamphetamine addiction and syphilis.
Hitler's ally Benito Mussolini was overthrown in 1943 after British and
American forces invaded Sicily. Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet
Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the eastern
front. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day) the Western allied armies landed in
northern France. Realists in the German army knew defeat was inevitable
and some officers plotted to remove Hitler from power. In July 1944 one
of them, Claus von Stauffenberg, planted a bomb at Hitler's military
headquarters (the so-called July 20 Plot), but Hitler narrowly escaped
death. Savage reprisals followed, resulting in the executions of more
than 4,000 people (often by starvation in solitary confinement followed
by slow strangulation). The resistance movement was crushed.
Defeat and death
By the end of 1944 the Soviets had driven the last German troops from
their territory and began charging into Central Europe. The western
armies were advancing into Germany. The Germans had lost the war from a
military perspective but Hitler allowed no peace talks with the Allied
forces and as a consequence the German military continued to fight. By
April 1945 Soviet forces were at the gates of Berlin. Hitler's closest
lieutenants urged him to flee to Bavaria or Austria to make a last stand
in the mountains but he was determined to die in his capital. The leader
of SS Heinrich Himmler tried on his own to inform the Allies with the
help of a Swedish diplomat that Germany is prepared to surrender. Hitler
heard this on the Swedish radio.
As Soviet troops battled their way toward his Reich Chancellory in the
centre of the city, Hitler is generally believed to have committed
suicide in his Führerbunker on 30 April 1945 in Berlin by means of a
self-delivered shot to the head (some disputed accounts add that he
simultaneously bit into a cyanide ampoule). Hitler's body and that of
Eva Braun, his long-term mistress whom he had married the day before,
were partially burned with gasoline and buried shortly thereafter in the
Chancellory garden.
When Russian forces reached the Chancellory, they exhumed his body and
performed an autopsy, using dental records (and German dental assistants
who were familiar with them) to confirm the identification. To avoid any
possibility of creating a potential shrine, the remains were then
secretly buried by SMERSH at their new headquarters in Magdeburg. In
April 1970, when the facility was about to be turned over to the East
German government, the remains were reportedly exhumed, thoroughly
burned and disposed of in the Elbe river. In Moscow there is a skull and
a mandible fragment which is said to be Hitler's (having been saved from
the dental identification process). DNA samples have been compared to
those of known surviving Hitler relatives and the matching results
indicate the fragment is most likely genuine.
Legacy
I would have preferred it if he'd followed his original ambition and
become an architect. - Paula Hitler (his younger sister), during an
interview with a US intelligence operative in late 1945.
In his will Hitler dismissed other Nazi leaders and appointed Grand
Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident (President of Germany) and
Goebbels as Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). However, Goebbels and
his wife Magda committed suicide on 1 May 1945. On 8 May 1945 in Reims,
France the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally ending the
war in Europe and with the creation of the Allied Control Council on 5
June 1945 the Four Powers assumed "supreme authority with respect to
Germany." Hitler's proclaimed Thousand Year Reich had lasted 12 years.
Since the defeat of Germany in World War II, Hitler, the Nazi Party and
the results of Nazism have been regarded in most of the world as
synonymous with evil. Historical and cultural portrayals of Hitler in
the west are almost uniformly negative, often neglecting to mention the
adulation the German people bestowed on Hitler during his lifetime,
though the majority of present-day Germans share a negative view of
Hitler.
The copyright of Hitler's book Mein Kampf is currently held by the Free
State of Bavaria, which does not allow reproductions. The copyright will
expire in 2015. The display of swastikas or other Nazi symbols is
prohibited and right and left wing extremists are generally under
surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz, the federal office for the
protection of the constitution.
Despite this there have been instances of public figures referring to
his legacy in neutral or even favorable terms, particularly in South
America, the Islamic World and parts of Asia. Future Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat wrote favorably of Hitler in 1953. Bal Thackeray, leader of
the right-wing Shiv Sena party in the Indian state of Maharashtra,
declared in 1995 that he was an admirer of Hitler.
While some Revisionist historians note Hitler's attempts to improve the
economic and political standing and conditions of his people and claim
his tactics were in essence no different from those of many other
leaders in history, his methods and legacy, as interpreted by most
historians, have caused him to be one of the most despised leaders in
history.
Medical health
Hitler's medical health has long been the subject of debate, and he has
variously been suggested to have suffered from irritable bowel syndrome,
skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, tremors on the left side of his body,
syphilis, Parkinson's disease and addiction to methamphetamines.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler
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