Adolf Hitler is known as one of the greatest dictators of all time. Hitler was the cause of the genocide of millions of Jews. During World War Two, 6 million Jews were killed (Altman, Linda Jacobs). The war, though, may not have been all his fault. “After 1933, something like a Führer state would have come into being even without Hitler. And there probably would have been another war even without Hitler. But not the murder of millions of Jews.” said Sebatian Haffner (Altman, Linda Jacobs). As a child, though, Hitler wasn’t thinking about controlling Germany.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. He was born in a small town called Braunau, in Austria. His father, Alois Hitler, was a customs inspector for Austria. He wanted young Hitler to become one,too. In primary school, Hitler excelled. All this changed when he entered secondary school. This school was much larger, and Hitler struggled with not being the best. His response to not being the best was to stop trying. Because of these combined factors, Hitler left home.
Adolf was very proud of his talent in art, so sent an application to an art academy. He was enraged when his application was denied. For a while, Hitler remained unemployed. During this time, he did a lot of contemplating about politics and his government. He had strong feelings against the Jewish people. He felt that Jews were the cause of filth in Austria and Germany. He also came to believe that the Hapsburg Kings of Austria, his own country’s leaders, were not German enough (Altman, Linda Jacobs). That, among other reasons, was why in 1914, the beginning of World War One, Hitler joined the German army.
Hitler joined the German army to avoid being drafted into the Austrian Army. Hitler liked the military, and he fought hard for Germany. He was injured twice in the war. His first injury was minor, when he got hit by shrapnel from an exploding shell. His second injury was much more serious. He was blinded by a mustard gas attack by the British. Hitler was sent to a hospital to recover. By the time he could see again, the war was over and Germany had surrendered. Hitler was horrified by this, and he immediately struck the blame on Communists and Jews inside the German government. Hitler believed that it was his job the restore the German government to greatness. For these reasons, Hitler entered politics.
Hitler started his role in politics by joining the German Workers Party. At first, it wasn’t much of a political party. It was more of a club. Hitler decided to turn it into a means of putting out his ideas. First, he changed the German Workers Party to the National Socialist German Workers Party, which would later be called the Nazi Party. Hitler gave many speeches, and he talked about “revoking the Versailles treaty, creating a peoples army, and excluding Jews from Germany’s national life.” (Altman, Linda Jacobs)
As time passed, Hitler began to feel that the original leadership of the party was failing. He easily took control of the party. Soon after, he got arrested for participating in a mob that was beating up politicians from other parties.He was sentenced to three months in prison. Soon after he was released from prison, he started his own army, which he called Sturm Abteilung (SA) (Simkin, John. 45). Sturm Abteilung means Storm Section.
The SA went around attacking other political organisations. They wanted to prove that no one could stand up to Hitler. Soon, Berlin passed a law of protection from the Nazi Party. Because of this law, Hitler decided to overthrow the German government. He also decided to kill leaders of the German government (Simkin, John. 48).
Soon after, Hitler and armed members of the SA invaded a meeting of the Bavarian government. He fired two shots into the air, and then he announced that the national revolution Had begun. In the next few days, Hitler planned to take the SA and invade Berlin, but Berlin found out about the invasion and