Adolph+Hitler+(Natalie)


 * __ Adolf Hitler __**

In 1920, Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers Party known as the Nazis. The Nazis called for all Germans, even those in other countries, to unite into one nation; they called for a strong central government; and they called for the cancellation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler became leader of the Nazi party and built up membership quickly, mostly because of his powerful speaking ability. Hitler organized an army for the Nazi party called the Storm Troopers ("Brown Shirts") who were called upon to fight groups seeking to disband the Nazi rallies. On November 9, 1923, Hitler led more than 2,000 Storm Troopers on a march to seize the Bavarian government. The attempt failed and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to prison for five years for treason. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In this book, he stated his beliefs and plans for Germany's future. Hitler only served nine months in prison and when he was released, he began to rebuild the party again. He set up a private battle-ready elite guard known as the "Schutzstaffel" (SS). By 1929, the Nazis had become an important minor political party. In 1930, a worldwide depression hit Germany, yet Germany also had the debt of paying for the damage it had caused in World War I. Hitler protested against paying the debt and said that the Jews and Communists were the cause for Germany's defeat in World War I. He promised to rid Germany of Jews and Communists and to reunite the German speaking part of Europe. In July, 1932, the Nazis received about 40% of the vote and became the strongest party in Germany. On January 30,1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Once in this position, Hitler moved quickly toward attaining a dictatorship. When von Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler already had control of Germany and he gave himself the title "Fuehrer" (leader). Under Hitler's government, called the Third Reich, there was no place for freedom. The government controlled every part of one's life. Hitler used extensive propaganda to brainwash the nation into believing his theory about creating the perfect Aryan or nordic race. Therefore, it was Hitler's plan to rid the nation and eventually the world of Jews, Gypsies, Negroes, handicapped, and mentally ill persons. This plan was called the "Final Solution." World War II began in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland to begin his unification of all German-speaking peoples. By this time extermination camps were being established throughout Germany, Poland, and Russia. Before Hitler was stopped in 1945 by the Allied countries, he had caused the extermination over 12 million people. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30,1945 and seven days later, Germany surrendered.
 * Adolf Hitler ** was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the [|National Socialist German Workers Party] (NSDAP), commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was [|chancellor of Germany] from 1933 to 1945 and __ [|dictator] __ of [|Nazi Germany] from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is commonly associated with the rise of __ [|fascism] __ in Europe, [|World War II], and [|the Holocaust] . In 1913, Hitler went to Munich, Germany and when World War I began in 1914, he volunteered for service in the German army. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, but only rose to the rank of corporal. When World War I ended. Hitler was in a hospital recovering from temporary blindness possibly caused by a poison gas attack. The Versailles Treaty that ended the war stripped Germany of much of its territory, forced the country to disarm, and ordered Germany to pay huge reparations. When the army returned to Germany. The country was in despair. The country was bankrupt and millions of people were unemployed.




 * __ Ideas/ideologies __**


 * Adolf Hitler was a particularly extreme German nationalist. In addition to his hatred of the Jews, which is very well known, he was a bundle of "anti-" attitudes - anti-democratic and anti-Republican. He was an ardent Social Darwinist, which means that he believed that the process of surivival of the fittest by natural selection should be artificially speeded up by the government, for example by killing 'incurables' and various 'undesirables'.
 * Despite the name of Nazi party, Hitler was rabidly, frantically, frenetically, hysterically anti-socialist. One reason for his anti-semitism was his view that the Jews the bearers of socialism and subversion.


 * __ Books of Adolf Hitler __**


 * // Mein Kampf //** (**//My Struggle//** or **//My Battle//**) is a book by Nazi leader [|Adolf Hitler]
 * It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology.
 * Hitler began the dictation of the book while imprisoned for what he considered to be "political crimes" after his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923.
 * In his book, Hitler divides humans into categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower orders, or types of humans. At the top, according to Hitler, is the Germanic man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler refers to this type of person as an Aryan. He asserts that the Aryan is the supreme form of human, or master race.
 * And so it follows in Hitler's thinking, if there is a supreme form of human, then there must be others less than supreme, the Untermenschen//,// or racially inferior. Hitler assigns this position to Jews and the Slavic peoples, notably the Czechs, Poles, and Russians.


 * __ Political/social goals __**

Adolf Hitler’s main plans were:
 * Convince the German empire that he was their next greatest leader. He promised everyone a job, and a car in their driveway's.
 * Destroy the Jewish community, and Jewish way of life.
 * To rid the world of Communism and Social Democracy
 * Adolf Hitler wanted to 'exterminate' everyone who didn't fit his perfect model of the Arian super-race (tall, fair skin/hair, blue eyes and Christian) and he started with the followers of the Jewish religion because he blamed them for the death of Jesus Christ. After the Jews Hitler planned to 'exterminate' every one who was crippled, disabled, ugly, of a different race/nationality and generally anyone who didn't fit his model.


 * __ Hitler’s form of government/party __**

The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist, totalitarian state. Totalitarian regimes, in contrast to a dictatorship, establish complete political, social, and cultural control over their subjects, and are usually headed by a charismatic leader. Fascism is a form of right-wing totalitarianism which emphasizes the subordination of the individual to advance the interests of the state. Nazi fascism's ideology included a racial theory which denigrated "non-Aryans," extreme nationalism which called for the unification of all German-speaking peoples, the use of private paramilitary organizations to stifle dissent and terrorize opposition, and the centralization of decision-making by, and loyalty to, a single leader.




 * __ World War II & Adolf Hitler __**

Beginning in 1933 and until the end of his life in April 1945, Adolf Hitler was Chancellor and Fuhrer (Leader) of Germany during what he termed the "Third Reich." He ruled the most powerful of the "Axis" nations. (The other Axis nations were Italy and Japan.) With Italy as his primary European ally, he waged war against almost every other European nation, as well as the Soviet Union and the United States. At the height of their power, his armed forces had conquered practically all of mainland Europe, parts of North Africa, and the Soviet Union as far east as Moscow.


 * __ Causes of the Holocaust __**

What most triggered the holocaust was: Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler was the driving force behind the obsessive and fanatical Nazi persecution and ultimately also the mass slaughter of the Jews and various other groups, though the details of implementation were left to the terror apparatus, headed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. Here are more opinions and input:
 * Nazi propaganda operated with conspiracy theories, especially the 'stab-in-the-back legend' and bizarre claims about an imaginary 'Judeo-Bolshevist' conspiracy against Germany, Austria and ethnic Germans. These ideas became popular among hardline nationalists in Germany, Austria and in some other countries. Some refugees from the Russian Revolution and civil war of 1918-21 also fueled these fanciful, but dangerous notions. The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (first forged around 1900 by the Tsarist secret police and purporting to provide details of a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world) was particularly important in this respect.
 * The Holocaust unfolded as Adolf Hitler's personal vision of the cleansing of his homeland of undesirables.
 * In World War 2 the Nazis greatly exacerbated (increased, intensified) their self-inflicted 'Jewish problem'. As a result of the Nazi invasion of other countries and especially Poland, the number of Jews under Nazi control greatly increased. At first, they herded the Jews in Poland and some other areas into ghettos, with a view to moving them all out of Europe at a future date. When it became clear that they were not going to win the war quickly, the Nazi leadership moved from a 'territorial solution' to the 'Final Solution' - that is, the Holocaust.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were intent on ruling and wiping out everyone that they considered to be inferior. They believed in and wanted the "Master Race." They gathered up entire families that did not fit into their ideals of what people should be and put them into camps where millions were tortured and murdered. Obviously, there was a long-standing antisemitic tradition in much of Europe (and America), but this in itself does not explain the Holocaust.


 * The Holocaust was part of a wider Nazi campaign to rid the world of what they often referred to as 'Jewish Bolshevism'. It did not start with 'a big bang' in response to any particular incident but developed rapidly in the second half of 1941 during the early stages of the German invasion of the Soviet Union **.




 * __ Vocabulary __**


 * ** Totalitarianism ** - A form of government in which all societal resources are monopolized by the state in an effort to penetrate and control all aspects of public and private life, through the state's use of propaganda, terror, and technology.
 * ** Nazism ** - The ideology and policies of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Worker's Party from 1921 to 1945.
 * ** Fascism ** - A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.
 * ** Dictator ** - A ruler having absolute authority and supreme jurisdiction over the government of a state; especially one who is considered tyrannical or oppressive.
 * ** Communism ** - A social, political, and economic system characterized by the revolutionary struggle to create a society which has an absence of classes, and the common ownership of the means of production and subsistence and centralized governmental control over the economy.

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