Some of Hitler's Reminding Things He Did - Essay Example

Hitler What was some of his reminding things he did? An Austrian born in Braunau Inn on 20th April, 1889, Hitler is the world’s infamous Germany dictator who mass murdered the Jews in the holocaust. He faced a rough childhood being born to a 51 year old father and a mother who later died of breast cancer. He was born in a family which had had many children (six in total) but some of them had died. Hitler and his father had a strained relationship because he was stubborn and would not conform to the rules and strict discipline of the school. Since his childhood, he was fascinated by war even though his dreams and passion lay in art. He had talent in art as he was even singing in the church choir. His spirituality which at one point made him contemplate to become a priest ended with the death of his brother and he did not believe the existence of God from that time as that God took away his young brother. His confidence in everything dwindled and he became sullen and hence the reason for his indiscipline in school. Hitler did not finish schooling as a culmination of indiscipline, lack of academic effort and interest in the schools he was being taken to as well as a lack of firm hand of guidance from his mother after his father passed on led him to quit school completely and start working as a casual laborer, a painter and even at some point sales man of water colors. He was a frustrated young man whose dreams of becoming an artist were constantly frustrated by being refused entry into Vienna Academy of Art (Haugen 23) with the reasons that he was not talented enough as a painter to the standards required by the school and even a lack of academic qualifications as he had not completed school. These frustrations increased even more after the death of his mother as he had no money and no shelter and had to be accommodated in a homeless shelter and start working with the other poor men. It is while working in Vienna that he started developing the anti-Semitism views and his hatred for the Jews started rising and continued until he had the opportunity to drive them away and kill them when he became the chancellor. As he did not wish to become an Austrian military man due to its mixture of races (including the Jews), he ran away to Munich where he stayed until the outbreak of World War 1 where he voluntarily enrolled to become a soldier. He therefore joined World War 1 as a soldier with the Germany Army and fought in several wars. Other than receiving awards at the war (he was awarded two iron crosses which was a mark of bravery (Haugen 103)), he also received injuries including serious one on the thigh which led him to be admitted for two months and this was followed by the first bout of blindness as a result of a mustard gas (both bouts of blindness were temporary however). His heart hardened in the military and he gained confidence which was useful later on when he decided to join politics. His road to politics was built from the defeat of the Germany army in the way and also the exploitation of the detrimental economic, social and political conditions in that nation. Hitler is renowned for his excellent oratorical skills and it is this skill that enabled him to join politics and rise through the different leadership positions (Haugen 54). His good oratorical skills combined with his anti-Semitism nature and the quest for a strong government is what made him be discharged from the army and he started working for the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) gathering audiences and crowds to defer with and criticize the government and give speeches against the Jews and Marxist (which he both detested). It is his popularity and courage that led to him receiving financial backing from the rich citizens who were supporting him. He was known for his blackmail nature and he used this method to get what he wanted and even rise in positions in many occasions. One of these occasions was the rise to become the party chairman of National Socialist German Workers Party replacing Dexter who was the very same person who introduced him to the party in the first place. His quest for power is what made him organize a coup (a fact that is not known to many people). Hitler served a prison term in Landsberg prison after attempting a coup (Beer Hall Putsch) to overthrow the German government but which failed. The prison term was supposed to be for five years but later he was released only after nine months (after the Supreme Court of Bavaria pardoned him) and he then decided to take over the government legally. It is while in prison that Hitler wrote a book about his struggles while in prison and they were published in a book called Mein Kampf. Hitler’s rise to power was as a result of the Great Depression which left Germany in need of a strong political party to raise the country and as Hitler happened to have rebuild the party to its previous stardom, it easily won the elections though Hitler did not immediately become a leader as he was stateless after renouncing his Austrian citizenship and it took seven years for him to get the Germany citizenship. Once he acquired the citizenship, Hitler ran for president. Even though he was not elected, he become even more popular and established a strong hold in politics and was appointed the chancellor then rose to become the Reich and finally the president (though this took place in an unscrupulous way). With command of the army and police force and being the top most leader of the land with all the powers he required, he started enforcing his anti-Semitism hatred towards the Jews in Germany. This plan to eliminate the Jews by killing them started being hatched in 1942 and this led to the concentration camps being set up in different locations throughout Europe (Housden 67). The Jews who amounted to around six million all through the continent were rounded up and taken to the concentration camps and other termination camps and mass murdered by being taken to death chambers where they were burnt alive. There was no escape from the concentration camps and those who attempted were shot dead. Very few Jews escaped this holocaust and majority of them were those who were skilled and working in those camps and were still present when the camps collapsed (Gitlin 56). It is Hitler that contributed greatly to the start of World War II which led to the death of many people as he ordered the invasion of Poland. The advancing defeat of Germany during the war and the advancement of the red Army as well as the Western ally all which were against Hitler led to the fall of Hitler. Almost all the army generals and others in command whom Hitler thought were on his side neglected him and refused to carry out his orders leading to Hitler having no choice but committing suicide to avoid being killed or publicly humiliated by being captured alive. He committed suicide 10 days after celebrating his 56th birthday on 30th April, 1945 and he did so with his wife Eva whom had been his long term girlfriend and whom she had just married a few hours before they both committed suicide all in a bid to avoid being captured. Hitler shot himself while Eva bit a cyanide capsule. To verify their deaths and angry that they had not captured them alive; the Soviet Troops doused their bodies in petrol and burnt them in a bomb crater. Hitler was a distrustful person and he trusted very few people who he became loyal to and expected their loyalty in return. Failure to this resulted in blackmail (which was his signature leadership style apart from dictatorship) and even death. He is documented to have caused the deaths of over 40 million people (through the holocaust, world war and other wars let alone personal killings). This in itself led him to be labeled and considered the worst leader and the number one murderer all of this because of his hatred towards ideologies of Semitism, Marxism and racism, hatred which was bore from his childhood and persisted to his death. After his death, it is told that Hitler left Germany and the whole of Eastern and Central Europe in the worse shape possible. The whole region was impoverished and especially Germany (which took a very long time to recover from the aftermaths of Hitler). He “collapsed” Germany which had been dominating not only Europe but the whole world in general (this was left to United States of America) and also a defeat of fascism which had been the ideology of Germany (Teschke 403). Other than the deaths and the detrimental economy, Hitler left the Nazi soldiers and the others who were following his rules to face judgment and even imprisonment from the rest of the world (Gitlin 81). Many of them died as a result of being obedient and following orders which were forced on them as a result of them serving in his army. Most of them committed suicide to avoid the blame and the pointing fingers directed to them by the rest of the world while others were murdered due to their participation in the atrocities. Another group changed their identity and fled to different parts of the world. The psychological effects to the Jews who were in the concentration camps were another of his legacies left behind by Hitler and his commanders. The trauma the Jews suffered will forever remain engraved in their minds and those of their generations. Many of these Jews once released from the camps suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and even depression that was so severe that it killed others while others even killed themselves. This according to history was the worst thing to ever happen to humanity and will always remain to be history. No much account of the good deeds performed by Hitler is provided leading to the conclusion that he did no good to not only the society but himself and his family when he was alive. The fact that he abandoned his remaining siblings by fleeing Austria and later renouncing his citizenship and all that Austria meant to him or all that he had from Austria is evidence enough of what type of person Hitler was. Work Cited Gitlin, Marty. The Holocaust. New York: ABDO, 2010. Print. Haugen, Brenda. Adolf Hitler: Dictator of Nazi Germany. Minnesota: Capstone, 2006. Print. Housden, Martyn. Hitler: Biography of a Revolutionary? New Jersey: Taylor & Francis, 2000. Print. Teschke, John. Hitler's Legacy: West Germany Confronts the Aftermath of the Third Reich. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Incorporated, 2001. Print. Read More