Germany Under Hitler and the Nazi

hitler.jpg (15317 bytes) Nationalism is an infantile idea.
It is a measles of mankind.
--Albert Einstein

The stars must have been in a special position above the Austrian town Braunau on April 20, 1889, when Adolf Hitler was born. Neither his father Alois Schickelgruber Hitler whom Adolf hated, nor his mother Klara Poelzl whom he, to the contrary, adored, could foresee their son's future. A touchy, difficult child who Adolf was in his young years, he didn't do well at school. His dream was to become a painter which did not come true because he was rejected by Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. During that hard time Hitler earned his humble living by selling his drawings. It was in Vienna that Hitler got his first education in politics by studying the demagogic techniques of Karl Lueger, and picked up the obsessive idea of antisemitism and concern with the 'purity of blood' that remained with him to the end of his career, and brought so much grief and tragedy into the lives of European Jewry.

In 1913 Hitler came to Munich where he volunteered for service in the German army and was accepted into the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. For the bravery during his service Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class and First Class. In 1919 Hitler joined the German Workers' Party, where he developed his exceptional oratory skills. Soon the name of the party was changed to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi for short).

In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the leader of the Nazi Party. Many Germans hoped Hitler would bring order to a nation suffering economic depression, mass unemployment, social disorder, and political instability. Hitler's brand of fascism combined several elements: extreme nationalism, militarism, racism, and anti-semitism.

Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 and quickly turned the nation's fragile democracy into a one-party dictatorship. Police rounded up thousands of political opponents, detaining them without trial in concentration camps. The Nazi regime also put into practice racial policies that aimed to "purify" and strengthen the Germanic "Aryan" population. A relentless campaign began to exclude Germany's one-half million Jews from all aspects of German life.