page_title: Adolf Hitler
section_title: Path to defeat
hierarchical_section_title: Adolf Hitler / World War II / Path to defeat
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Berlin, Reichstagssitzung, Rede Adolf Hitler Die vernichtende Rede des Führers über Roosevelt. Am Donnerstag nachmittag hielt der Führer vor den Männern des Deutschen Reichstags die grosse und mit fieberhafter Spannung erwartete Rede zu dem von dem Kriegshetzer Roosevelt heraufbeschworenen Krieg im Pazifik. Auf der Regierungsbank (von rechts nach links) sieht man den Führer, neben ihm Reichsaussenminister v. Ribbentrop, Grossadmiral Reader, Generalfeldmarschall v. Brauchitsch, Generalfeldmarschall Keitel und die Reichsminister Dr. Frick und Dr. Goebbels. - In der zweiten Reihe (von rechts): Die Reichsminister Graf Schwerin-Krosigk, Funk, Darré, Rust, Kerrl, Dr. Frank, Dr. Dorpmüller, Dr. Seyss-Inquart und Dr. Todt. - Dahinter (von rechts): Reichsminister Rosenberg und die Staatsminister Dr. Meissner und Dr. Popitz. AV 65979 [Berlin, Kroll-Oper.- Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler während seiner Rede vor dem Reichstag zur Kriegserklärung an die Vereinigten Staaten.] Abgebildete Personen: Hitler, Adolf: Reichskanzler, Deutschland Ribbentrop, Joachim von: Außenminister, NSDAP, Deutschland Frick, Wilhelm Dr.: NSDAP, MdR, Reichsinnenminister, 1924 Hitlerputsch-Prozeß vor dem Volksgericht München, 1946 hingerichtet, Deutschland (GND 119055201) Goebbels, Joseph: Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, Gauleiter Berlin, Deutschland Schwerin von Krosigk, Lutz Graf: Reichsfinanzminister, Deutschland Rosenberg, Alfred: Außenpolitisches Amt, Ideologe, Reichsminister Ostgebiete, Deutschland Göring, Hermann: Reichsmarschall, Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe, Ministerpräsident von Preußen, Deutschland Information added by Wikimedia users.English: Adolf Hitler delivers a speech at the Kroll Opera House to the men of the Reichstag on the subject of Roosevelt and the war in the Pacific, declaring war on the United States. Next to Hitler in the government benches (from right to left) are Joachim von Ribbentrop, Erich Raeder, Walther von Brauchitsch, Wilhelm Keitel, Wilhelm Frick and Joseph Goebbels. In the second row (from right to left) are Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Walther Funk, Richard Walther Darré, Bernhard Rust, Hanns Kerrl, Hans Frank, Julius Dorpmüller, Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Fritz Todt. In the third row (from right to left) are Alfred Rosenberg, Otto Meißner and Johannes Popitz.
context_page_description: Adolf Hitler was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party. He rose to power as the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then as Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust.
  Hitler was born in Austria—then part of Austria-Hungary—and was raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, and was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
context_section_description: On 22 June 1941, contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, over three million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union. This offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers. The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. By early August, Axis troops had advanced 500 km (310 mi) and won the Battle of Smolensk. Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily halt its advance to Moscow and divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev. His generals disagreed with this change, having advanced within 400 km (250 mi) of Moscow, and his decision caused a crisis among the military leadership. The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December. During this crisis, Hitler appointed himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.
  On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Hitler declared war against the United States.
  On 18 December 1941, Himmler asked Hitler, "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", to which Hitler replied, "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans"). Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the genocide carried out during the Holocaust.
  In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command and began to interfere in military and tactical planning, with damaging consequences. In December 1942 and January 1943, Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the almost total destruction of the 6th Army. Over 200,000 Axis soldiers were killed and 235,000 were taken prisoner. Thereafter came a decisive strategic defeat at the Battle of Kursk. Hitler's military judgement became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated, as did Hitler's health.
  Following the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was removed from power by Victor Emmanuel III after a vote of no confidence of the Grand Council. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, placed in charge of the government, soon surrendered to the Allies. Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation Overlord. Many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that continuing under Hitler's leadership would result in the complete destruction of the country.
  Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant degrees. The most well known, the 20 July plot of 1944, came from within Germany and was at least partly driven by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war. Part of Operation Valkyrie, the plot involved Claus von Stauffenberg planting a bomb in one of Hitler's headquarters, the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg. Hitler narrowly survived because staff officer Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase containing the bomb behind a leg of the heavy conference table, which deflected much of the blast. Later, Hitler ordered savage reprisals resulting in the execution of more than 4,900 people.
caption: Hitler announcing the declaration of war against the United States to the Reichstag on 11 December 1941
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