adolf Hitler
"the führer"
EARLY LIFE
In Braunau, a small Austrian town, on April 20th, 1889, Klara and Alois Hitler gave birth to a son named Adolf. As a child, Adolf did well in school, but his performance declined as he got older. When he was 15 years old, he failed his exams and left school. By age eighteen, both of his parents had passed away and he had moved to Vienna to attend art school. The two art schools he applied to rejected him and he scraped by on an inheritance from his father and help from his relatives until 1913 when moved to Munich to escape arrest and military requirements in Austria. MILITARY LIFE Hitler joined the German Army during World War One and was promoted to the rank of Corporal. His time spent in Vienna and his service in the war shaped his political views, especially antisemitism. After the war Hitler became involved in politics, and was named the leader of the Nazi party in 1921. In November of 1923 he tried to overthrow the Bavarian state government in Munich in the event known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Given a light sentence for treason, Hitler went to prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf and gained even more public support and admiration. In early 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor and in 1934 after Hindenburg’s death, Hitler was in complete control. Starting in 1933, Nazis supported boycotts of Jewish shops and passed laws that prevented Jews from holding positions of public service. In 1935, Hitler and the Nazi party instituted the Nuremberg Laws, which define Jewishness and prohibit Jews from having relationships with people of “German blood”. Hitler soon passed many more laws and decrees that diminished the rights of German Jews. In conjunction with Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler organized pogroms in 1938 which destroyed the homes, businesses, and synagogues of many Jews. The November Pogroms (including the event known as "Kristallnacht") marked the beginning of massive Jewish arrests and deportation to concentration camps. World War Two began when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939. Hitler’s orders continued to be carried out and many people died at Hitler’s command. In January 1942, high-ranking Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference and discussed the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Although Hitler himself was not present at the conference, he had given instructions to Reinhard Heydrich regarding his wishes. Heydrich led the conference, at which the men in attendance discussed how to implement their plan to annihilate the European Jewish population. DEATH When Hitler realized that he was going to lose World War Two, he committed suicide with his wife, Eva Braun, on April 30, 1945. They swallowed a cyanide capsule and then Hitler shot himself with a pistol. Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945. Sources: Adolf Hitler. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 10:50, May 04, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-9340144. Adolf Hitler. (2013, March 19). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/adolf-hitler Adolf Hitler and World War I: 1913–1919. (2014, June 20). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007431 Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch). (2014, June 20). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007884 The Nuremberg Race Laws. (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007695 Trueman, C. (n.d.). Nazi Germany Timeline. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nazi_germany_timeline.htm |