I asked the most stupid question today according to my class. We were talking about China and the Olympics and Tibet after watching an undercover movie in Tibet. All of a sudden everyone was comparing it to Hitler. I got a bit confused and stuck up my hand and asked “Who’s Hitler?”. Everyone went crazy about it. I am pretty sure I am the only one in my class who has never heard of Hitler judging by their reactions so when I got home I decided to investigate. So just really who is Hitler?
Hitler’s full name was Adolf Hitler and he was born on the 20 April 1889. He was a chancellor in Germany and Führer of Germany. Hitler killed a lot of people and led the Germans to war. Hitler went to WW1 for France and Germany.
There was a lot more information on Hitler but I would bore you to death if I wrote it all down. If you would like to know more about Hitler or if you were like me and had completely no idea what or who Hitler was you can go to this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler
Also since I thought about this for quite a long time I decided I would copy off some information so here it is; you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to
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Hitler served in France and Belgium in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment (called Regiment List after its first commander), ending the war as a Gefreiter (equivalent at the time to a lance corporal in the British and American armies). He was a runner, the most dangerous job on the Western Front, and was often exposed to enemy fire.[20] He participated in a number of major battles on the Western Front, including the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras and the Battle of Passchendaele.[21]
Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914 and Iron Cross, First Class, in 1918, an honour rarely given to a Gefreiter.[22] However, because the regimental staff thought Hitler lacked leadership skills, he was never promoted to Unteroffizier (equivalent to a British corporal). Other historians say that the reason he was not promoted is that he was not a German citizen. His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. He drew cartoons and instructional drawings for an army newspaper. In 1916, he was wounded in the leg during the Battle of the Somme, but returned to the front in March 1917. He received the Wound Badge later that year. Sebastian Haffner, referring to Hitler’s experience at the front, suggests he did have at least some understanding of the military.
On 15 October 1918, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack. The English psychologist David Lewis[23] and Bernhard Horstmann indicate the blindness may have been the result of a conversion disorder (then known as hysteria). Hitler said it was during this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to “save Germany.” Some scholars, notably Lucy Dawidowicz,[24] argue that an intention to exterminate Europe’s Jews was fully formed in Hitler’s mind at this time, though he probably had not thought through how it could be done. Most historians think the decision was made in 1941, and some think it came as late as 1942.
Two passages in Mein Kampf mention the use of poison gas:
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At the beginning of the Great War, or even during the War, if twelve or fifteen thousand of these Jews who were corrupting the nation had been forced to submit to poison-gas…then the millions of sacrifices made at the front would not have been in vain.[25] |
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These tactics are based on an accurate estimation of human weakness and must lead to success, with almost mathematical certainty, unless the other side also learns how to fight poison gas with poison gas. The weaker natures must be told that here it is a case of to be or not to be.[26] |
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Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot, although he did not become a German citizen until 1932. He was shocked by Germany’s capitulation in November 1918 even while the German army still held enemy territory.[27] Like many other German nationalists, Hitler believed in the Dolchstoßlegende (”dagger-stab legend”) which claimed that the army, “undefeated in the field”, had been “stabbed in the back” by civilian leaders and Marxists back on the home front. These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.
The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of various territories, demilitarised the Rhineland and imposed other economically damaging sanctions. The treaty re-created Poland, which even moderate Germans regarded as an outrage. The treaty also blamed Germany for all the horrors of the war, something which major historians like John Keegan now consider at least in part to be victor’s justice: most European nations in the run-up to World War I had become increasingly militarised and were eager to fight. The culpability of Germany was used as a basis to impose reparations on Germany (the amount was repeatedly revised under the Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, and the Hoover Moratorium). Germany in turn perceived the treaty and especially the paragraph on the German responsibility for the war as a humiliation. For example, there was a nearly total demilitarisation of the armed forces, allowing Germany only six battleships, no submarines, no air force, an army of 100,000 without conscription and no armoured vehicles. The treaty was an important factor in both the social and political conditions encountered by Hitler and his Nazis as they sought power. Hitler and his party used the signing of the treaty by the “November Criminals” as a reason to build up Germany so that it could never happen again. He also used the “November Criminals” as scapegoats, although at the Paris peace conference, these politicians had had very little choice in the matter.
