WWII+Hitler+Page+ALEA

Hitler's Rise to Power
__**﻿Introduction:**__ ====Hitler was a very powerful leader in Germany during the WWII era. He did many negative things with his power and got many people to have hatred against the people of the Jewish religion. In this report, we are going to explore many aspects of his life and why he used his power for negativity.====

__** Hitler's Early Life: **__ ====Family: As a child, Hitler had both a mother and father. His mother's name was Klara. His father's name was Alois. His father had an interesting job as a minor customs officer in the Austrian service. When Hitler turned 14,his father passed away. Hitler and his mother then traveled to Vienna with Hitler dreaming of becoming an architect. After a few years, Hitler then relocated to Munich to settle down.====

====Education: Hitler was a mediocre student in school. Starting off in elementary school, Hitler received good marks on his report card. However, when he entered high school, his grades started to falter, and he started receiving mediocre marks. Because of this, his ill-tempered father was angered with him. Adolf and his father disagreed on Hitler's future career. Hitler wanted to be an artist while his father had other plans for him to become a civil servant. Hitler left school at the age of 16, two and a half years after his father had died. Since his mother had drawn a widow's pension plan, Adolf did not have to go to work. Because of this, he spent his time with his creative side drawing pictures and daydreaming.====

====Careers: Since Hitler had dreamed of becoming an artist, he applied for the Academy of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, he failed the entrance exam twice. He lived comfortably in Vienna considering himself an artist. The beginning of WWI motivated Hitler to join the service and serve his country. Hitler was known to take part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war.====

====Military: Before the war, in 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, Germany. He was found unfit for service when the Austrian Army called on him for service. When the war finally started in 1914, he applied for the German army and was immediately accepted. For most of the war he was a messenger on the Western Front. Being a messenger was one of the most challenging positions to serve in the military. Hitler was wounded and decorated twice for bravery. The former corporal was recovering in the hospital from mustard and poison gas when Germany lost the war. He was upset at the news of Germany's surrender and felt he needed to so something to save the country.====

====The Treaty of Versailles was created in 1919. Because many of the countries involved in the war believed which the entire war was Germany's fault, the treaty had a lot of negative effect on Germany. This was an underlying cause of WWII. However, the treaty also did some other things as well. For example, it created nine new nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. It also shifted the boundaries of other nations. Some negative effects the treaty had on Germany were that it barred Germany from having an army, required Germany to return the region of the Alsace-Lorraine to France, and to pay war damages amounting to $33 billion dollars, devastating Germany's economy. The treaty humiliated Germany. It contained a war-guilt clause that gave to sole responsibility of starting WWI to Germany. Hitler knew all of these things about the treaty and experts think that the outcome of WWI and the treaty started WWII. They believe that Hitler wanted revenge.====

**__Rise of Hitler and Post-War Nazis__**
====After Hitler's recovery in the hospital, he returned to Munich. He then began to attend meetings of a small German nationalist group, the German Workers Party. When he joined, he changed its name to National Socialist German Workers Party. They then became known as the Nazis. Because of Hitler's skills as a organizer, he soon became the party's leader. He stirred crowds and attacked to government in numerous speeches. Declared that the party could fix the economy and fix Germany. Aside from all of this, Hitler also organized his own private army called the storm troopers. He used the Swastika as their emblems and clothes them with brown shirts. This was how they became known as the "brown-shirts."====

__**How Hitler becomes Chancellor and Dictator of Germany**__

On January 30, 1933, Hindenburg, the president of Germany, named Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany.

 * An important aspect the helped Hitler gain the political position of Chancellor was that he was the leader of the Nazis. Many political leaders wanted the support of the Nazis. Also, Hitler refused any political offer that did not end up without him becoming chancellor.

In the July Reich-stag (German Parliament) elections, the Nazis became Germany's strongest party.

 * Five major elections were held as Germany's leaders struggled to give political stability to the nation. The Nazis received nearly 38 percent of the votes of the elections. Leaders of other parties offered Hitler cabinet posts in exchange for Nazi support.

Hitler hadn't settled for anything less than full control and dictatorship.

 * There were three Nazis total in the cabinet. The vice chancellor would limit Hitler's power. Hitler believed that there was no place for freedom in his government.

__**Additional Points of Research**__

The Nazi Party began to involve youth in their group and created Nazi Youth in 1922

 * The purpose of this group was to educate boys from 14-18 to become followers of the Nazi Party. Hitler also wanted them to join the military as well. The kids had to wear brown shirts, like the storm troopers, and black shorts or trousers and armbands with the Nazi logo on it.

To gain territory quickly, the German army would often use a strategy called blitzkrieg.

 * Blitzkrieg stood for lightning war. The Germans would use speed and overwhelming force to surprise their enemy. The word refers to German offensives at the start of WWII.

Hitler also set up a secret police force known as the Gestapo.

 * The original point of this police force was to stop any opposition against the Nazi Party. Heinrich Himmler became its leader in 1934. This force was created in 1933.

__** Primary Documents: **__

Mein Kampf:
"ONE DAY I received orders from my headquarters to find out what was behind an apparently political organization which was planning to hold a meeting within the next few days under the name of 'German Workers' Party'-with Gottfried Feder as one of the speakers. I was told to go and take a look at the organization and then make a report. The curiosity of the army toward political parties in those days was more than understandable. The revolution had given the soldiers the right of political activity, and it was just the most inexperienced among them who made the most ample use of it. Not until the moment when the Center and the Social Democracy were forced to recognize, to their own grief, that the sympathies of the soldiers were beginning to turn away from the revolutionary parties toward the national movement and reawakening, did they see fit to deprive the troops of suffrage again and prohibit their political activity." (Hitler)
 * This excerpt from Hitler's book "Mein Kampf." It explains when Hitler first came in contact with the "German Workers Party."

"The existence of this fear--and the possibility of such a conflict-are of definite concern to the people of the United States for whom I speak, as they must also be to the peoples of the other nations of the entire Western Hemisphere. All of them know that any major war, even if it were to be confined to other continents, must bear heavily on them during its continuance and also for generations to come.  Because of the fact that after the acute tension in which the world has been living during the past few weeks there would seem to be at least a momentary relaxation--because no troops are at this moment on the march--this may be an opportune moment for me to send you this message." (Message to Hitler and Mussolini)
 * This letter is explaining to Hitler and Mussolini that even a war in Europe will be feared by other countries. It is also saying that the war that may be cause will also have an effect on generations to come.


 * __ Works Cited: __**

4. Hitler, Adolf. "Mein Kampf: The 'German Workers' Party'."//Hitler Historical Museum//. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2011. .====