World War II

Seeing as in the World War I section, I concentrated on the movements, I am now going to concentrate on the personalities. I will begin by covering Adolf Hitler and his story, and then I will cover the war itself. Although Hitler is an Austrian, he is a very major part of Germany’s history.

Hitler, Adolf

Noted for his stupid-looking ‘Charlie Chaplin’ moustache, Adolf Hitler became a very powerful dictator, and was the promoter of World War II. He was born on April 20, 1889. His father was a customs official and his mother, a peasant girl.

Never having done very well in school, Hitler dropped out early. He applied for the ‘Academy of Fine Arts’ in Vienna but was rejected for being unclever and untalented. He began to read wildly, developing an Anti-Jewish mind.

In World War I Hitler joined the German Army and was respected as a courageous and brave soldier, but was never promoted above Private 1^st class, as he was thought to lack leadership qualities.

In 1919, Hitler joined the ‘Nationalist German Workers’ Party’ and the following year, began to work full time. In 1921, Hitler was elected as the party chairman. That party is now better known as the ‘Nazi Party’.

Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison for leading an uprising against the government in November 1923 but was released four years early due to excellent behaviour. However, when he got out, he re-built his party and after giving many empty promises, he became the Prime Minister, as we would call it, in 1933.

Once in power, Hitler made himself a dictator and demanded that Anti-Nazis and Jews be sent to concentration camps. In 1935, Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles and ordered weapons to be made and kept in Germany.

Hitler then made the first real movement of the war, the invasion of Poland, a country that was nearly all Jewish. Then Hitler invaded Belgium. Belgium, at the time, was at an agreement with Britain in which, if it was invaded, England would come to its aid. Eventually other countries joined in too.

Soon it became obvious that Germany was losing, even though they had the better start to the war. The Germans invading Russia proved to be their downfall, as the German troops could not stand the extreme cold, which could reach temperatures of -40 ^oC. Yet Hitler kept giving orders to attack, in the hope that a miracle might arise.

Finally, on April 30 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker. His wife, Eva Braun, whom he had married the day before, also committed suicide.

Hitler was in a word, either thoughtless or careless. He used people as tools to get him things that he wanted, then got himself out when things went wrong, leaving the country with the blame and punishment.

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