Hitler was a Great Leader

Let's begin with a few basic facts about Hitler, shall we? A Brief History of Adolf Hitler -Despite becoming the dictator of Germany, Hitler was not born there. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria on April 20, 1889. -Hitler's parents were Alois (1837-1903) and Klara (1860-1907) Hitler. Hitler had only one sibling that survived childhood, Paula (1896-1960). -However, Hitler also had four other siblings that died in childhood: Gustav (1885-1887), Ida (1886-1888), Otto (1887), and Edmund (1894-1900). -In addition to his sister Paula, Hitler had one step-brother, Alois (b. 1882) and one step-sister, Angela (1883-1949), both from his father's previous marriage. -Hitler was known as "Adi" in his youth. -Hitler's father, Alois, was in his third marriage and 51 years old when Hitler was born. He was known as a strict man who retired from the civil service when Hitler was only six. Alois died when Hitler was 13. Artist and Anti-Semite -Throughout his youth, Hitler dreamed of becoming an artist. He applied twice to the Vienna Academy of Art (once in 1907 and again in 1908) but was denied entrance both times. -At the end of 1908, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer. -After his mother's death, Hitler spent four years living on the streets of Vienna, selling postcards of his artwork to make a little money. -No one is quite sure where or how Hitler picked up his virulent antisemitism. Some say it was because of the questionable identity of his grandfather (was Hitler's grandfather Jewish?). Others say Hitler was furious at a Jewish doctor that let his mother die. However, it is just as likely that Hitler picked up a hatred for Jews while living on the streets of Vienna, a city known at the time for its antisemitism. Hitler as a Soldier in World War I -Although Hitler attempted to avoid Austrian military service by moving to Munich, Germany in May 1913, Hitler volunteered to serve in the German army once World War I began. -Hitler endured and survived four years of World War I. During this time, he was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery. -Hitler sustained two major injuries during the war. The first occurred in October 1916 when he was wounded by a grenade splinter. The other was on October 13, 1918, when a gas attack caused Hitler to go temporarily blind. -It was while Hitler was recovering from the gas attack that the armistice (i.e. the end of the fighting) was announced. Hitler was furious that Germany had surrendered and felt strongly that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its leaders. Hitler Enters Politics -Furious at Germany's surrender, Hitler returned to Munich after the end of World War I, determined to enter politics. -In 1919, Hitler became the 55th member of a small antisemitic party called the German Worker's Party. -Hitler soon became the party's leader, created a 25-point platform for the party, and established a bold red background with a white circle and swastika in the middle as the party's symbol. In 1920, the party's name was changed to National Socialist German Worker's Party (i.e. the Nazi Party). -Over the next several years, Hitler often gave public speeches that gained him attention, followers, and financial support. -In November 1923, Hitler spearheaded an attempt to take over the German government through a putsch (a coup), called the Beer Hall Putsch. -When the coup failed, Hitler was caught and sentenced to five years in prison. -It was while in Landsberg prison that Hitler wrote his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). -After only nine months, Hitler was released from prison. -After getting out of prison, Hitler was determined to build up the Nazi Party in order to take over the German government using legal means. Hitler Becomes Chancellor -In 1932, Hitler was granted German citizenship. -In the July 1932 elections, the Nazi Party obtained 37.3 percent of the vote for the Reichstag (Germany's parliament), making it the controlling political party in Germany. -On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Hitler then used this high-ranking position to gain absolute power over Germany. This finally happened when Germany's president, Paul von Hindenburg, died in office on August 2, 1934. -Hitler took the title of F"hrer and Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). Hitler as F"hrer -As dictator of Germany, Hitler wanted to increase and strengthen the German army as well as expand Germany's territory. Although these things broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the treaty that officially ended World War I, other countries allowed him to do so. Since the terms of the Versailles Treaty had been harsh, other countries found it easier to be lenient than risk another bloody European war. -In March 1938, Hitler was able to annex Austria into Germany (called the Anschluss) without firing a single shot. -When Nazi Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, the other European nations could no longer stand idly by. World War II began. -On July 20, 1944, Hitler barely survived an assassination attempt. One of his top military officers had placed a suitcase bomb under the table during a conference meeting at Hitler's Wolf's Lair. Because the table leg blocked much of the blast, Hitler survived with only injuries to his arm and some hearing loss. Not everyone in the room was so lucky. -On April 29, 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun. -The following day, April 30, 1945, Hitler and Eva committed suicide together. This information was taken directly from http://history1900s.about.com... Now, let's take a look at some of Hitler's speeches. http://m.youtube.com... World War II and the Holocaust: Despite the fact that Hitler was a madman, he did rally millions of people around the world to massacre anyone who was different. Jews, homosexuals, and Gypsies were sent to concentration camps and brutally murdered in some of the most imaginative ways possible. According to Wikipedia, "The lead editors of the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933"1945 of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean, cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, operating from 1933 to 1945. They estimate that 15 million to 20 million people died or were imprisoned in the sites.[24]" Other types of camps, called extermination camps (or death camps) were used to house victims of the Nazis, primarily Jews, who were to be "exterminated", or killed. Basically, they were pigs being led to slaughter. While an accurate number of deaths in the extermination camps was never discovered, a rough estimate of the death toll is over 3 million people over a period of 5 years, with at least 8 death camps operational. Primary methods of carnage were gassing, shooting, starvation, and torture. At first, mass shooting was mainly used for execution, but the trauma of this act of slaughter caused many of the shooters to become mentally deranged, and in some cases, take their own lives. Soon, gassing took over as a central method of assassination, but the cost of transporting the carbon monoxide cylinders that had been used for gassing to the East proved to be too great. After testing out prussic acid crystals that released a fatal cyanide gas when they were removed from their containers, it was determined that "Zyklon-B", as they were called, would be used to gas the unsuspecting victims in the extermination camps. Hitler's Accomplishments: During a speech on April 28th, 1939, Hitler spoke about what he felt that his greatest accomplishments were. "...I overcame chaos in Germany, restored order, enormously raised production in all fields of our national economy...I succeeded in completely resettling in useful production those 7 million unemployed who so touched our hearts...I have not only politically united the German nation but also rearmed it militarily, and I have further tried to liquidate that Treaty sheet by sheet whose 448 Articles contain the vilest rape that nations and human beings have ever been expected to submit to. I have restored to the Reich the provinces grabbed from us in 1919; I have led millions of deeply unhappy Germans, who have been snatched away from us, back into the Fatherland; I have restored the thousand year old historical unity of German living space; and I have attempted to accomplish all that without shedding blood and without inflicting the sufferings of war on my people or any other. I have accomplished all this, as one who 21 years ago still an unknown worker and soldier of my people, by my own efforts..." However, today's historians and experts have determined that Hitler's greatest accomplishments were much different than what he believed. Before the War... -Hitler united the German and Austrian people behind him. He was very popular among the citizens, due in part to the large economic and social successes, such as, "the virtual disappearance of unemployment, the rising prosperity of the masses, the new social institutions, and the increase of German prestige in the 1930s..." -By 1938, Hitler had made Germany the most powerful country in Europe (perhaps even in the world) without war. Some historians even believe that had Hitler died in 1938 before the war, and the mass executions along with it, began, he would have been remembered as possibly the greatest German leader in history. During the War... -Hitler came very close to winning the war in 1940, but Britain's forces, led by Winston Churchill, forestalled his victory. -It took the Anglo-American coalition with the Soviet Union to defeat Hitler and his army, and it is doubted that the war would have been won had the two forces not joined together to conquer the Nazis.