Adolf Hitler
Political Leader / World War II Figure
Adolf Hitler's 12 years as ruler of Germany, which led to the deaths of millions in World War II, have made him one of history's most hated villains. A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party in 1919, later renaming it the National Socialist German Workers Party (which was shortened to the Nazi Party). By 1921 he was the leader of the group, and in 1923 led an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the ruling German Weimar Republic. Hitler was sent to prison, where he wrote his manifesto, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), and he emerged from jail less than a year later as a populist spokesman for poor and nationalistic Germans. Made chancellor in 1933, he suspended the constitution, forcibly suppressed all political opposition and brought the Nazis to power. He enforced his new rules with a brutal secret police (the Gestapo) and formed concentration camps for the organized murder of Jews, Gypsies and political opponents. Hitler's bullying, aggressive foreign policy led to the start of World War II in 1939. Although he had remarkable early success in the war, by 1942 the tide had turned, and by 1945 Allied troops had crossed into Germany and were headed for Berlin. Hitler apparently committed suicide in his command bunker in Berlin in 1945, ending both Nazi rule and the war.Extra credit: Hitler survived a 1944 assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg... One of Hitler's concentration camp victims was Anne Frank... One day before his death, Hitler finally married his longtime girlfriend Eva Braun; she committed suicide with him by swallowing cyanide on 30 April 1945. Hitler apparently swallowed cyanide and then shot himself.
Hitler joins former U.S. president Ronald Reagan in our loop Almost Assassinated!
Other WWII leaders include: Britain's Winston Churchill, America's Franklin Roosevelt, Italy's Benito Mussolini, the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin, Japan's Hideki Tojo and France's Charles de Gaulle.
Blog posts mentioning Adolf Hitler:
Four Good Links
Encarta: Adolf Hitler
The encyclopedia's excellent recap of his life and career
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
Biography from a very large BBC site on World War II
Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust
Detailed (and scathing) biography of Hitler, with many photos, from a larger site on the Holocaust
Best of History: World War II
Links to many WWII sites, neatly ranked and ordered
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
30 April 1945
(suicide, age 56)
Best Known As
The leader of Nazi Germany during World War II
