Rise of A Tyrant - Adolph Hitler
Adolf Hitler was the hate-filled leader of the Nazi Party and Germany
from 1933-1945. He waged a military war in Europe and a campaign to destroy the
Jewish people which almost destroyed Western civilization in the process.
When Adolf Hitler campaigned for
election as Chancellor (prime minister) and promoted a policy of
deutschland uber alles--Germany above all else--the
nationalistic Germans listened to him. They wanted very much to see their
country regain the power and prestige it had lost after their defeat in World
War I. Hitler took advantage of this desire, and of their general anger and
frustration, and connected these feelings to the long-standing contempt that
many Germans had for the Jews. Hitler preached that the Jews were the cause of
all of Germany's misfortunes.
Hitler was a spellbinding public
speaker who understood his audience. When he stressed that the Jews were
different from the Aryans (the caucasian non-Jews of Germany), and said that the
difference was dangerous, he told them what they wanted to hear. He simplified
complex issues, promised Germans a better life and a glorious future, and
accepted the responsibility of purging Germany of the Jews and their dangerous
influences. His theories of the racial superiority of the Germans and the racial
inferiority of the Jews gave the Germans a pseudo-scientific basis for the
long-standing anti-Semitic feelings that had always shadowed even the best
Jewish-Christian relationships in Germany. These views demanded the elimination
of the Jews in order to have a healthy Germany, and as Hitler rose to power
these ideas became more and more apealing to many Germans.
In January 1933, after elections were
held in which Hitler's Nazi Party won 44% of the vote, Hitler was appointed
Chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. Hitler established a
coalition government and began to dismantle the fragile democracy that existed,
eventually demanding a receiving from the German parliment the power to form a
totalitarian government with absolute control placed in his hands.
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