Adolf Hitler was a genocidal maniac characterized by rabble-rousing speeches, passive aggressive energy and crippling insecurity- a statement not warranting questions, but what created and ultimately broke the monster certainly poses a few.
Born a bastard on the 5th April 1889, Hitler’s younger days would be riddled with controversy. His father, Alois, a civil servant, is widely recognized as an aggressive and dominating man who beat his children. A large pension enabled him to retire in 1895, when Hitler was only six. Add to this that he would be joining school the same year and you can see how and free spirit’s fun, fantasy world would come crashing down as 24 hour supervision incased him. As a result of his career, Alois regularly had to up sticks and move and this didn’t cease either, as he restlessly struggled with retirement. Doctor Pam Evans, a psychologist specializing in the effect of early childhood experiences on later life, suggests; “Often when a child witnesses or experiences abuse or aggression from their parent, they replicate or at least bare the scars of the behavior in later life. The lack of a safe base and home would also have created a deep founded vulnerability to insecurity.” Difficult indeed, but surely we can’t even contemplate suggesting this had any part to play in the atrocities that he would go on to commit?
Hitler didn’t enjoy school from day one but did attain an appetite for art. He was primed to push on when he finally escaped the confines of primary school, assuming he would be able to pursue his passion at an arts school. His father instead chose to enroll him in a specialist science and technical school, hoping he would follow in his own footsteps and pursue a career in the civil service. Hitler did not enjoy his time there, nor did he achieve well, failing his first year. He was an outcast and continually struggled to make friends. One of his former teachers said, “he struggled with the other students and would often sit alone at break times, spending most of his time drawing little pictures.” Hitler maintained his dream and once his mother was on her deathbed and his father long gone he finally had the opportunity. Aged 18, a pale-faced optimist left for Vienna. He wasn’t accepted (after failing the entrance examination) and was left to experience the extremes of poverty as he tried and tried and tried again. The optimist soon faded as the pessimist within prevailed. Adolf Hitler would never be the same again. The eventual Fuhrer experienced an unusual amount of loss throughout his youth. He had five siblings, of which one survived childhood. The impact on his upbringing was extensive, creating an over bearing father and over indulgent mother. Edmund, his brother, died aged six when Hitler was still only young and he would often sit in the cemetery gazing nostalgically up at the stars, according to eyewitnesses. Hitler’s father passed away when he was still only 14, leaving a spotty teen head of the household. On 21st December 1907, a 17yr old Adolf Hitler lost the most important person in his life, his mother, to breast cancer. The effects of bereavement on him, and his ability to form relationships, were clearly decisive, perhaps going some way to explaining his psychopathic lack of empathy. His short and now ever so fragile life had been a misery.
It has long been a matter of debates for scholars and historians alike as to whether Hitler was in fact a closet homosexual. Lothar Machtan, the German historian and writer, is one of many to suggest that perhaps the Nazi party’s homophobia was a result of Adolf Hitler’s own embarrassment. One of his closest friends, Rohm was known to enjoy the company of his own gender, leading to a number of people speculating as to whether he was Hitler’s “Manstress”. It has also been suggested that he and Eva Braun, his wife, would sleep in separate bedrooms and use separate bathrooms. Professor Richard English of the