Growing up in Austria, Adolf Hitler was spoiled by his mother and mistreated by his father. His mother doted on him, favoring him even above his other two, younger siblings. His father, however, disapproved of Adolf’s obsession with art, and discouraged his dreams of becoming an artist, telling him it wasn’t practical. Adolf began to fail his classes at school, trying to make a statement to his father. His father died when Adolf was thirteen, and by sixteen, he had convinced his mother to let him drop out of school. At eighteen he moved to Vienna and to take the general admission test for the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, but the examiners didn’t find his art to be good enough, and suggested he go to architecture school instead.
Adolf returned home to take care of his sick mother instead, who died soon after. A year later, he went back to Vienna and roomed with his best friend, August, while he reapplied to the art school. He was rejected again, except this time, it hit Adolf harder than before, and he moved out and onto the streets. He began to make a small profit from painting postcards, and eventually moved into a group house for men. He wanted badly to leave Austria, but stayed until he was twenty-four and could collect his inheritance. He went to Germany to escape, but was forced back to Austria to join the army. When they found him too weak, he returned to Germany to become a messenger against France and Russia.
Many times during the war, Hitler felt that he was being protected and saved for a greater purpose. In 1919, he was elected by his regiment as a delegate to the Bavarian government. He took a course on extreme socialism and convinced soldiers returning from war to hate socialism and blame Jews for the issues facing Germany. He began working as a spy and investigating the German Worker’s Party(GWP). The president of the party, Drexler, became interested in him and soon Hitler was a member, working from the inside as a spy. Time passed and Hitler became more involved, seeing it was an opportunity to rise to power and position. The party soon became the Nazi party, and Hitler became their leader.
When his attempt to take over Berlin failed, and he was betrayed by those who claimed to be loyal to him, he became angry, sentenced to five years in prison. But Hitler’s popularity grew, and he was released after just nine months. Prime minister Heinrich Held let Hitler back into the government, but after an anti-Jew speech he gave, he was banned from speaking in Bavaria for two years. He decided to expand, planting groups of Nazis around the country. Germany thrived and became a member of the League of Nations in 1927, and all seemed well. Two years later, the U.S stock market crashed and invested Germans suffered with failed stock shares. Germany was once again in a fragile spot.
Over six years, the Nazi party jumped from 3% support to 18%. Hitler ran for president in the national election in 1932, and though he got 30% of the vote, it wasn’t enough to win, making Paul von Hinderburg president, instead.
During this time, Hitler’s niece, Geli, accompanied him on many trips and outings, but killed herself with his own revolver when she knew she couldn’t have him. Soon after, Hitler became interested in Eva Braun, assistant to his personal photographer. She also attempted to kill herself, feeling neglected, but survived. Though Hitler cared for her, especially after her suicide attempt, he considered himself married to Germany and his cause, and wouldn’t marry her as she wished.
After a year-long fight, Hindenburg made Hitler chancellor, and he grew in power. In 1933, when a fire was set to the Reichstag building, Hitler convinced the president that the Communist Party was responsible and had all communist deputies arrested. Soon, he essentially abolished the constitution, giving himself power to write laws. He abolished the Democratic and Communist parties.
He began using government funds to start what he called Hitler Youth, involving young men and women in his cause. He made laws restricting Jews in many ways, including pulling all Jewish children out of schools, taking away radios, and began boycotting all Jewish-run businesses. He also called out of the League of Nations, despite controversy.
When a Jewish man shot a German official in Paris, Hitler became even more ruthless. He signed an alliance with Joseph Stalin, and hoped to overthrow Poland with his help.
He then began the long process of persecuting Jews, sending them to concentration camps by the hundreds, killing the old and women and children, and working the men hard until death. The Nazis destroyed homes, killed innocent people, and ruined businesses. There was no mercy.
As the end of war was in sight, Jews began to rise up. But their attempts for escape and resistance mainly failed, and in Hungary alone, 500,000 Jews were killed between May and July in 1943. Hitler grew weak and began to lose memory and consciousness more frequently. He became medicated, but even the drugs didn’t help much, and he became delusional.
On April 28th, 1945, he knew Germany would be defeated. He took his long-time love, Eva Braun, to a secret bunker and married her. Together, the next day, they poisoned themselves, and Hitler shot himself at the same time. He wrote a note requesting that their bodies be burned upon death. Though Hitler was dead, his following was severe, still. His loyal press secretary, Joseph Goebbels, poisoned his six children, and then requested to be shot by Nazi soldiers with his wife the next day.
By the end of the war, the statistics were clear. Two out of three Jews were killed during World War II. And though Hitler was gone, things never quite returned to how they had been.
Many times in his life, Hitler said he believed he was meant for a bigger, better purpose. Hitler was a gifted speaker and communicator, yet he used his talents to harm others, not to help. It’s hard to imagine what he could have accomplished as a world leader for the good of the people, had his focus been different. He took his talents and gifts and used them for the good of himself, not others.
tags; emmy, world war two, hitler,