Hitler Essay Research Paper

Hitler Essay, Research Paper

–Kristallnacht: the night of broken glass. Thousands of Jews were arrested, synagogues and Jewish stores were burned, and Austrian Jews were sent off to death camps. This was the beginning of the Final Solution, Hitler s plan for an Aryan nation. These were the actions of one of the worst dictators in history.Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. He was the son of Alois, a customs official, and Klara Hitler. Alois died when Hitler was only thirteen and his mother was left with the duty of child rearing. Even though Hitler had a promising talent in art, he dropped out of school. He did not work or study and his problematic childhood grew as he was denied admittance to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Shortly after, his mother passed away and with no family financially able to support him, he moved to Vienna in search of work. Within a year Adolf was homeless, scrounging for food, and selling his paintings whenever he could. (A Brief Biography of Adolf Hitler) “In 1913, Adolf Hitler, still a penniless vagrant, moved to Munich in southern Germany. At the outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, he volunteered for service in the German army and was accepted into the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.” (A Brief Biography of Adolf Hitler) Hitler was a brave soldier and during the war he “was promoted to corporal and decorated with both the Iron Cross Second Class and First Class, the latter of which he wore until his dying day [ironically the regimental captain who recommended him for the award was Jewish].” (A Brief ) The day of the announcement of the armistice in 1918, Hitler was in hospital recovering from temporary blindness caused by a British gas attack in the Ypres Salient. In December 1918 he returned to his regiment back in Munich.” (A Brief )In 1918 the German Army s surrender upset Hitler. He believed that the Jews and the Communists betrayed Germany, and it was here that his dislike for Jews most likely began. With no real government to control the country, Germany found itself in a state of turmoil. This lack of government left the country open to any political stability available, thus giving way to Hitler s political rise during 1919. During this time, employment was hard to find, so Hitler decided to stay in the army. Hitler was assigned to a “local army organization which was responsible for persuading returning soldiers not to turn to communism or pacifism. During his training for this tasks and during his subsequent duties he was able to hone his oratory skills.” (A Brief ) On one such mission for this organization Hitler was sent to investigate a small group, which called itself the “German Workers Party.” There he sat rather bored until a man rose and began to speak in favor of the German province of Bavaria breaking away from the mother country and becoming its own state with Austria. Hitler, a German nationalist, hated to see such unpatriotic views from his fellow Germans. Angered, he then spoke about how this man was wrong and embraced the crowd at the meeting. (The Rise of Hitler) “The founder of the party, Anion Drexler, was so impressed by Hitler’s tirade that he asked him to join their organization.”(A Brief ) Unable to make a decision Hitler took a pamphlet from Drexler and decided to think about the offer.”Early the next morning, sitting in his cot in the barracks of the 2nd Infantry Regiment watching the mice eat bread crumbs he left for them on the floor, Hitler remembered the pamphlet and read it. He was delighted to find that the pamphlet, written by Drexler, reflected political thinking much like his own –building a strong nationalist, pro-military, anti-Semitic party made up of working class people.” (The rise of Hitler)A few days later, Hitler received notice that he had been accepted into the organization and was asked to attend an executive membership meeting, and he did, still undecided on joining. In Hitler s book Mein Kampf, he writes of the condition of the party: “…aside from a few directives, there was nothing, no program, no leaflet, no printed matter at all, no membership cards, not even a miserable rubber stamp…” (Mein Kampf). The group was not much, but Hitler saw opportunity in them, and believed they would become not only a political party, but also a movement. It took him two days to decide, but Hitler resolved to join the party. “It was the most decisive resolve of my life. From here, there was and could be no turning back.” (Mein Kampf)Hitler s job in the group was responsibility of propaganda and publicity. He was a great speaker and after planning several events he made a great deal of money for the organization. On April 1st, 1920, the name of the party was changed to the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi for short). Shortly after, Hitler became leader and adopted the swastika as the party emblem. By 1921, “Hitler had virtually secured total control of the Nazi party.”(The Rise of Hitler)With his new power, Hitler attempted to take over the Bavarian government in Munich in an event called the “Beer Hall Putsch.” The Bavarian officials were kidnapped in a beer hall and a new regime was proclaimed; however, the coup was not a success. The officials escaped and regained control of their army and police. The ringleaders of the incident, mainly Hitler and General Lundendorff, one of the most senior generals in The Great War, were arrested for treason. Hitler