Hitler, Adolf
April 20,1889 - April 30, 1945
Hitler persecuted and killed around 6 million Jews.
by Rit Nosotro First Published:: 2003( )
In 1876, at age 39, Alois Schicklgruber changed his name to Alois Hitler. In 1885 married a 24 year old pregnant woman named Klara Pölzl. Klara's first three children, two boys and a girl, all died. On April 20, 1889, in Braunau, Austria, she gave birth to Adolf. He was born healthy and was baptized Roman Catholic. Hitler's father was 52 years old when this happened. Adolf's mom was scared of losing him so she showed lots of love towards him.
Adolf's older brother, Alois Jr. was 13 when he ran away from his abusive father. Adolf was the next one to get the same treatment at age seven. Adolf went to a catholic monastery school. Adolf Hitler did well in elementary school and also was a choirboy. When he was young he wanted to become a priest.
He also found out that he had a talent for drawing. He could sketch buildings by just looking at it and then being able to draw it from his memory. One day Hitler found his father's book collection and found some military books. One of these books was a picture book of the War of 1870 - 1871, which was between the Germans and the French. Hitler became obsessed with these books.
Hitler wanted to be an artist, but his dad wanted him to be a civil servant.
In high school Adolf's poor grades upset his father. Two-years after his
dad died of a lung hemorrhage, leaving Adolf head of the house at thirteen
years of age. In 1903, Hitler dropped out of school. He spent his time
day dreaming and drawing. After
Hitler's mother died in 1908, Hitler tried to get his orphan's pension.
Hitler lost his orphanage fund and was obligated to sleep in homeless
shelter. Later he went to Vienna to be an art student but he failed
the Academy of Fine Arts' entrance examination two times. His life improved
financialy with the money his aunt left him. Sometimes even sold his paintings
for money.
During WWI German
officials needed men for war. They drafted Hitler and, there Hitler was
recognized various times for bravery. He was a messenger charged with
secret operations
in the Western front and was wounded twice. But he did not go up
in rank cause people believed him to be a loner and not fit to command
men. Germany was defeated in 1918, Hitler sat in the hospital, and there
he was convinced that Germany lost the war because of the Jews..
When he was in a hospital recovering from mustard gas, he was informed
that Germany surrendered; he thought that the unity of Germany was being
threatened and that he had to save Germany. Germany
went through a great economic and national depression. Political parties
who could not solve the crisis, left in hands of others equally hopeless.
Hitler's hatred for Jews started to grow. He believed that no form of
government could last if they treated all nationalities equally. Hitler's
patriotic nationalism grew. He wanted the whole world to be like Germans,
or at least under control of Germans. After he recovered, he joined
the National Socialist German Workers' Party which later became known
as the Nazi Party. He then became the leader of the Nazi Party. He said
his Nazi Party and himself could restore the greatness of Germany.
On November 8, 1923, Hitler planned many things against the government. He was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. He only stayed in prison for nine months. After Hitler's party was voted in the Nazis had the control over Germany. In August 1934, he became chancellor. He quickly turned the government into a dictator government. When elected officials approached Hitler SS thugs blocked them. They were only allowing Nazis into the building. The vote was for Hitler to sign any bill and it would be passed in twenty-four hours. With Nazis in the place every bill was quickly passed. Everyone was fearful of the government so they lived in silence.
Hitler was opposed to the evangelical churches of pastors such as Bonnoffer, but he was able to manipulate the Roman Catholic church to support his policies as they were also opposed to Greek Orthodox and Protestant Christians. Hitler wrote:
I am personally convinced of the great power and deep significance of Christianity, and I won't allow any other religion to be promoted. That is why I have turned away from Ludendorff and that is why I reject that book by Rosenberg. It was written by a Protestant. It is not a Party book. It was not written by him as a Party man. The Protestants can be left to argue with him ... As a Catholic I never feel comfortable in the Evangelical Church or its structures. That is why I will have great difficulty if I try to regulate affairs of the Protestant churches. The evangelical people or the Protestants will in any case reject me. But you can be sure: I will protect the rights and freedoms of the churches and not let them be touched, so that you need have no fears about the future of the Church.1Hitler was also ready to discuss with the Bishop his views on the Jewish question: "As for the Jews, I am just carrying on with the same policy which the Catholic church has adopted for fifteen hundred years, when it has regarded the Jews as dangerous and pushed them into ghettos etc., because it knew what the Jews were like. I don't put race above religion, but I do see the danger in the representatives of this race for Church and State, and perhaps I am doing Christianity a great service."
Hitler was preparing Germany for war. He wanted to conquer France and Russia but still maintain his alliance with Italy and Britain. He signed a treaty with Russia that guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other. Later he then began to take over other countries. After Poland, , France and Britain declared war on Germany and World War II began on September 1, 1939. Hitler attacked with "blitzberg" speed through Belgium toward France. Hitler's plans were going well. He had allied with Italy, and Japan. Hitler attacked England, but England did not surrender. Hitler attacked the USSR but lost decisive battles. Hitler's plans really started to fall when the United States entered war. On April 30, 1945 he committed suicide in Berlin.
1Conway, J. S. "The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, 1933-1945" © 2001 - 474 pages,
Pgs. 25, 26 & 162.
