BRUTALITY, mercilessness or those who bring about them can never be forgotten. April 30 marks the 59th death anniversary of Adolf Hitler, one of the most brutal, merciless yet the most powerful man of the 20th century.
A politically, socially and economically collapsed Germany was the legacy of World War I. Adolf Hitler converted it into a fully-militarized zone and launched World War II in 1939. He made anti-Semitism a keystone of his propaganda and policies, and built the Nazi Party into a mass movement. He hoped to conquer the entire world, and for some time dominated most of Europe and much of North Africa. He enforced his idea of racial purity among the Germans and caused the slaughter of millions of Jews, Slavic people and many others, all of whom he considered inferior.
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria in 1889. His father worked for the Austrian customs service and had considerable status, as a result of which Hitler had a comfortable childhood. It’s interesting to know that the most powerful dictator had hoped to become an artist, but was considered unqualified by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in October 1907.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 came as an opportunity for Hitler. He volunteered for the German army and served in the war. Though repeatedly decorated for bravery, he was never considered for promotion. Perhaps his officers considered him a loner who could carry messages and perform other dangerous duties, but who was not suited for command. After the war, Hitler returned to Munich. He was selected as a political speaker by the local army headquarters, given special training and provided with opportunities to practice public speaking before the returning prisoners of war. His speaking successes led to his selection as an observer of political groups in the Munich area. In this capacity, he investigated the German Workers’ Party (GWP), one of the many nationalist, racist groups that developed in Munich in the post-war years.
The GWP, later renamed as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazi Party), became Hitler’s political focus. Here, he found an outlet for his talents in political agitation and party organization. Though still in the army, Hitler quickly became the new spokesman for the party. His talent for public speaking and the use of the local army’s resources to generate publicity drew large audiences to events sponsored by an organization that had only 100-200 members. When he presented the party’s official programme to a gathering on February 24, 1920, there were almost 2,000 people present in the audience. Hitler then rebuilt the Nazi Party and waited for the opportunity to regain national influence. That opportunity came with the Great Depression of 1929. He promised jobs to the unemployed and a return to national prosperity. The elections of 1930 elevated him to power and he quickly established himself as a dictator. After being appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1932, Adolf Hitler convinced the then German President, Paul von Hindenburg, to dissolve the parliament and call new elections. Hitler used the time before the elections to suppress other political parties and to consolidate his power. Although in the elections held in March 1933, the Nazis received less than 50 per cent votes, there were no other parties remaining that could challenge them and Hitler assumed total control over the government.
Starting in 1933, Hitler began the process of German rearmament and militarization that would eventually lead to World War II. After purging possible rivals for leadership, Hitler rearmed Germany into a modern war machine. He and the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, became allies in 1936. Hitler was an emotional speaker who had a mesmerizing effect on those who listened. By 1938, he had amassed the best-equipped and the best-trained army in the world.
A series of losses to the Allies and failure to defeat the Soviets left Hitler’s armies severely weakened. Hitler’s Germany had also changed a great deal. British and American bombers were devastating its industries and cities. The Germans who had reservations about Hitler’s regime had begun to find recruits. However, most of the population still supported the regime and specially Hitler. Those opposed to him saw his assassination followed by a military takeover as the only way to topple the dictator.
Although Adolf Hitler knew that Germany had been defeated by the allied forces including the United States, United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), he refused to surrender. He married his mistress, Eva Braun, and committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945. After his death, Hitler’s corpse was cremated in order not to let the allied forces even have his dead body. Hitler had left Germany and much of Europe in ruins. Over 60 million people died worldwide in the war, millions became homeless and as many people were either psychologically, socially or economically devastated.
BRUTALITY, mercilessness or those who bring about them can never be forgotten. April 30 marks the 59th death anniversary of Adolf Hitler, one of the most brutal, merciless yet the most powerful man of the 20th century.
