I thought it would be interesting to look into some more information about the man whose leadership and planning caused the death of nearly 6 million innocent people. Before looking up this information I personally knew very little about Hitler or his life. After looking at various websites I was able to find information about his life and a lot of which was somewhat surprising to me.
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| A young Hitler [http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/Hitler99.jpg] |
Overview of Hitler’s Life:
For the first 14 years of Hitler's life, he was controlled by his very strong-willed Austrian father. Shortly after his father passed away, Hitler went to boarding school where he struggled and this struggling caused him to continuously get in trouble for bad behavior and receive poor grades. At age 16 he left school for good and wandered around different towns and various woods, reading and painting and dreaming of becoming a famous artist one day. When Hitler was 17 his mother was fighting breast cancer, Hitler was overcome with his desire to become a famous artist and took his inheritance and left his sick mother to go to Vienna. He took various tests and was rejected from the Academy of Arts. With this rejection along with the death of his mother, Hitler fell into a deep depression. Through this depression Hitler began his obsession with anti-Semitism, propaganda, and mass political manipulation. After years of moving around and dealing with his depression he joined the Army. While in the army he maintained only a corporal status which lasted only for about a year until he was injured multiple times. These injuries led him to receive Iron Cross Award which was a very respectable award at that time. After leaving the army, he became the head of the SA (storm troopers). He then became known for his speeches and propaganda that was increasing the number of people within this German working party very quickly. He began the Nazi group and continued to gain followers. This growth of followers led Hitler to plan to overtake the German government. This plan failed and Hitler ended up receiving a five year jail sentence. This didn't hold Hitler back though; he took his time in jail to mature his ideas, tactics and plans for his future in Germany. When released from jail after only 9 months he then spent a few "quiet years" living in the mountains and planning his German Reich. He used these new ideas to increase his following even more than he had previously and very quickly. The poor economic conditions and depression in Germany along with his many followers led Hitler to gain chancellorship in the German government. Through his two years at this position, Hitler gained a lot of political allies and control. Hitler with his storm troopers created a plan to take over the government by faking the finding of a communist uprising in the making and even went to the extent of burning down the Reich and pretending it was done by the communists. Using the fire as a way to work with the newspapers to print elaborate stories about the communists and a plan to take them down. Within the new elections, the communists lost many votes but still maintain a majority. Hindenburg who was the leader at this time was old and not mentally stable, Hitler used this to his advantage. He was able to get Hindenburg to sign an emergency decree after the fire. This decree allowed the Nazi group to systematically take over the state by using the decree as an excuse to remove office holders and replace them with commissioners of the Nazi Reich. After this Hitler was able to get Hindenburg to sign even more documents. These documents along with Hitler's use of speeches and propaganda, allowed Hitler and the Nazi group to take over the government entirely. Hitler now took the title of Fuher. As Fuher, Hitler used Germany’s resources, unemployed population and propaganda to begin racial domination that led to war and the “final solution.” During Hitler’s reign more than 6 million Jewish and other non-Jewish men, women and children were murdered. When Germany lost power in 1945, Hitler gave up on Germany and the German people. On April 30th 1945 at the age of 56, Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a gun.
Facts you may not have known about Hitler:
-He was one of 4 children. He had two younger siblings (brother Edmund and sister Paula) and two older half siblings (brother Alois Jr. and sister Angela)
-His father was a very strict and angry man who took his frustration out on Alois Jr. with physical and verbal abuse. This abuse let Alois Jr. to run away at age 14. With Alois Jr. gone, Hitler’s father started abusing Hitler at age 7.
-When Hitler was a child he idolized priests and even dreamed of becoming one when he was older.
-Hilter’s younger brother Edmund died at age 6 from measles. Edmunds death had a big impact on Hitler.
-After Hitler’s mothers death he moved to Vienna with his only friend August Kubizek. He was unemployed for quite some time and then even became homeless living in a park for some time.
-He used any donation money given during his speeches for propaganda and flyers to be made.
-While in prison, Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf which spoke about a divide of humans into categories based on physical appearance creating lower and higher orders or types.
-Hitler was in love with his niece Geli who was half his age. She had the entire physical characteristic that appealed to him. He considered Geli the love of his life and had a relationship with her that was not socially acceptable. They had a relationship that consisted of a lot of jealousy and fighting. Geli ended up committing suicide and this put Hitler into a horrible depression once again.
-Hitler originally planned on killing himself with liquid cyanide poison. Those he was with on the day of his death, including his wife Eva all killed themselves this way. Hitler ended up shooting himself in the head.
-Hitler originally planned on killing himself with liquid cyanide poison. Those he was with on the day of his death, including his wife Eva all killed themselves this way. Hitler ended up shooting himself in the head.
-Hitler married his wife Eva only one day before they both committed suicide.
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| Hitler [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Adolf_Hitler.png] |
Resources:
"Adolf Hitler Biography - Life, Children, Name, Death, School, Mother, Young, Son." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Advameg, Inc. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. http://www.notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Hitler-Adolf.html.
"The Rise of Adolf Hitler: Chapter Index." The History Place. The History Place, 1996. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/index.htm.
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