Essays on Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town. Hitler became interested in politics during his years in Vienna, after his mother death. During his time in Vienna, he developed many of the ideas that would shape Nazi ideology. Also, nationalism would become the motivating force of Hitler's life.

In 1913, Hitler relocated to Munich. At the outbreak of World War I, he was allowed as a volunteer in a reserve infantry regiment. Hitler was wounded twice during the conflict and received the Iron Cross First Class and the Black Wound Badge. The war experience reinforced his passionate German patriotism.

After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich. In September 1919, Hitler joined the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) — often abbreviated to Nazi. In 1921, he became the Nazi party chairman. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison after his failed coup d'état known as the Beer Hall Putsch.

During his nine months in prison in 1924, he began to dictate his autobiographical book and political manifesto that would become "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle"). The first volume was published in 1925, and a second volume came out in 1927.

In January 1933, Paul von Hindenburg named the 43-year-old Hitler as chancellor. January 30, 1933 marked the birth of the Third Reich. Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship. In 1933, Hitler's Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany. In next few years, Hitler begun to militarize the nation in anticipation of his plans for territorial conquest.

Adolf Hitler developed the idea of the Jews as an evil race struggling for world domination. Hitler was obsessed with the idea of the superiority of the “Aryan" race. Following his appointment as chancellor, the regime built a network of concentration camps for political opponents and those deemed "undesirable." Also, the Nazis used propaganda, persecution, and legislation to deny human and civil rights to German Jews.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, sparking the beginning of World War II. In 1940 Hitler invaded Norway, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. Hitler violated the 1939 non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin, and launched the attack against the USSR on June 22, 1941. By the end of 1942, the tide of the war turned against Germany. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, bringing the war in Europe to a close.

Between the start of World War II and its end, Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the deaths of at least 11 million noncombatants. In concentration and extermination camps were imprisoned and killed Catholics, homosexuals, political dissidents and the disabled, and especially Jews. On January 20, 1942, the policy of extermination of Europe's Jews began with a plan known by the Nazis as "The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem". The death camps were to be the essential instrument of the “final solution.” From 1942 to 1945, Jews were deported to the camps from all over Europe. At Auschwitz alone, more than 2 million people were murdered.

On 29 April 1945, he married his longtime lover Eva Braun. The couple committed suicide on April 30, 1945, fearful of being captured by enemy troops. Their bodies were burned according to Hitler’s instructions.

The Nazi regime was responsible of death of tens of millions of people, including more than 20 million in the Soviet Union and six million Jews in Europe.

"If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!"
"Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself."
"if you want to shine like sun first you have to burn like it."