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On April 20, 1889, history's most infamous dictator, Adolf Hitler, was born in the Austrian town of Branau within a few miles of the German border. Raised in poverty, Hitler's childhood was defined by the brutal criticisms he received from his father. He never showed much interest in his education, failing to even finish secondary school. The only subject that seemed to motivate him was art, and after his loving mother died when he was 18, Hitler moved to Vienna to try and make a name for himself as a painter. There, he failed on two separate occasions to gain admission to Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts, reducing him to making drawings for advertisements and postcards in order to subsist. These six years were defined more by the people who influenced him, including anti-Jew writer Lanz von Liebenfels and pan-Germanism advocate George Ritter von Schonerer. These men, among others, grew his heritage of anti-Semitism into a violent disgust for Jews and all other non-Germans. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Hitler was now living in Munich and he rushed to enlist in the Reserve Infantry. He became a fierce, militaristic nationalist and was decorated four times for his service on the dangerous frontlines. In September 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party and worked as a political agent in the postwar army. Hitler stayed with his regiment until April 1920, well beyond the end of the war, but he soon found that politics were of more importance to him. The Treaty of Versailles had humiliated Germany in almost every way possible. The world blamed them for the war, the economy was in ruins, valuable territories had been lost, military activity was forbidden, and most importantly, people had lost all faith in their country and government. No one had any sense of what it meant to be a German anymore, and the nation projected a feeling of hatred towards the rest of Europe. They had been left to fade away, and there was nothing they could do about it. Hitler capitalized on Germany's crisis, quickly finding success in politics using an intense, passionate style of propaganda. In July 1921, he was elected president of the German Worker's Party, now known as the Nazis, and began to spread his views to the national population. He attacked the Weimar Republic for its incompetent leadership; even more so, he blamed communists and Jews for all of Germany's woes. On November 8, 1923, Hitler decided that the time was right for a rebellion and led his supporters through Munich in the "Beer Hall Putsch," an attempt to overthrow the democratic government. His ambition, however, turned out to be premature as the movement was easily squashed. Their leader was tried for treason and sentenced to five years in Landesberg Prison. The authorities goal was to insure that Hitler would not become a martyr for the German people, but after writing the memoir-manifesto //Mein Kampf// in prison, he became something more. The book outlined Nazism and their vision for Germany, a country ridden of Jews, communists, etc. where a "master" race would emerge as the most powerful in the world. Hitler became a cultlike hero after the publication of //Mein Kampf//, and was released after serving only nine months of his sentence. Over the next six years, the Nazis and grew in unprecedented numbers and became the second largest party in the country. The Brownshirts, a predecessor to the SS, were established to literally crush the opposition, and the Nazis formed an alliance with the Nationalist Party to win over industrialists. Hitler teamed with the men who would soon help in making his dystopian dream a reality, including minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels and SS leader Heinrich Himmler. By the time the 1932 presidential election came around, he was was more than ready to mount a campaign against World War I veteran Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler ended up finishing second, but the Nazis became the most represented party in the Reichstag with 230 seats. Under tremendous pressure from the Brownshirts, Hindenburg had no choice but to appoint Hitler chancellor of Germany. Once in office, Hitler easily made the frail Hindenburg an afterthought to the German people. The Nazis quietly arranged the arson of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933 and abolished the Communist Party, issuing warrants for the arrest of their leaders. Any obstacles to Hitler's power were overcome by the passing of the Enabling Act on March 23, which gave him dictatorial powers and reduced Hindenburg to president in name only. Hitler set about dismantling //all// other political parties and brought all branches of the government under his control. Jews were expelled from their positions and any Nazis who challenged his domination of the party were mudered. When Hindenburg passed away in August, the "title and concept of //president// [were replaced] with that of //Führer//, supreme leader, of the new government, the Third Reich" (Axelrod).
 * Hitler's Rise**

__Hitler Youth__- The Hitlerjugend was founded in 1922 as a way to insure the continuation of the Nazi's way of life and to prepare the next generation for military service. Originally for boys aged 14 to 18, it was soon expanded to include boys as young as 10 and even girls. The organization was considered so important to Germany's cause that branches were established in every country occupied, and by the end of the war, boys were being assigned to front-line combat.
 * Additional points of research:**

__euthanasia program__- Part of Hitler's racial purification was to eliminate any citizens who possessed incurable diseases and biological deficiencies, thus "improving Germany's national health" (Biesenger). Many churchmen opposed the practice, including Catholic Bishop Clemens von Galen, calling attention to "a terrible doctrine which seeks to justify the murder of innocent people" (Galen). In response, Hitler ended the euthanasia program in 1941 but the experience was soon applied to the extermination of Jews at death camps.

__The Gestapo__- Alongside the SS, the Gestapo (Nazi Germany's "Secret Police") infiltrated underground resistance movements and hunted down anybody the government considered a threat. This went beyond Jews to include intellectualls, homosexuals, and unconventional clergymen, who were then killed or deported to concentration camps. The Gestapo exercised "virtually limitless power" (Butler), and its actions could not be appealed through the courts.

__Adolf Eichmann__- As a lieutenant colonel in the SS, Eichmann handled the forced emigration of undesirables from Germent. He was eventually put in charge of the Final Solution, the total extermination of the country's Jewish population, a job that included the creation of death camps and development of mass killing methods. He never acted from a personal or ideological standpoint; rather, his only concern was to maintain "mass production" and that meant the deaths of over 11 million Jews.

__book burning campaigns__- Joseph Goebbels, minister of propoganda, was committed to controlling the way citizens thought and thus ordered the destruction of any form of expression that did not agree with the Nazis' teachings. The writings of Jews and left-wing authors were burned, often publicly in city streets, by party members. In fact, by the start of World War II, almost all books sold had to be written by the department of propoganda.

Axelrod, Alan. "Eichmann, Adolf." //Encyclopedia of World War II//, Volume I. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=WWII0209&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011).
 * Works Cited:**

Axelrod, Alan. "Hitler, Adolf." //Encyclopedia of World War II//, Volume I. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=WWII0291&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011).

Biesinger, Joseph A. "euthanasia in Nazi Germany." //Germany: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present//, European Nations. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=GER0237&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011).

Burg, David F. "Hitler Jugend (HJ)." //Encyclopedia of Student and Youth Movements//. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1998. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=student00322&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011).

Butler, Rupert. //The Gestapo: A History of Hitler's Secret Police 1933–45.// Havertown, Pa.: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, 2004

Clemens August Von Galen. "Opposing Nazi Euthanasia." Von Galen, Clemens August. "Three Sermons in Defiance of the Nazis." Church in History Information Centre. Available online. http://www.churchinhistory.org/pages/booklets/vongalen(n).htm. Accessed December 20, 2007. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=SIWH0128&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011). //Galen was the Catholic bishop of Munster, one of the few people who successfully spoke out against Hitler. He believed that the Nazis practiced an anti-Christian dogma and condemned them for euthanizing the disabled. He delivered this sermon in July 1941; a few months later, the program was halted.// RM, plc. "Adolf Hitler." //Hutchinson's Biography Database// (2011): 1. //History Reference Center//. EBSCO. Web. 18 Sept. 2011.

Mishra, Patit Paban. "Hitler, Adolf." In Ackermann, Marsha E., Michael Schroeder, Janice J. Terry, Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur, and Mark F. Whitters, eds. //Encyclopedia of World History: Crisis and Achievement, 1900 to 1950//, vol. 5. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=WHV109&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011).

"Nazis Burn Books at a Rally." The WPA Film Library. WMV video file. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? ItemID=WE53&iPin=WPA0054&SingleRecord=True (accessed September 18, 2011). //This video was recorded in May 1933 at a propoganda campaign in Berlin. The works of Karl Marx and Shakespeare were among those burned, as well as numerous copies of the Old Testament. After the rally, Joseph Goebbels himself gave a speech condemning seditious literature.//