Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. He earned many medals for bravery in the First World War.The German defeat horrified him. The Treaty of Versailles made him furious.
He joined theGerman Workers Party and renamed it National Socialist German Workers’ Party. This later came to be known as the Nazi Party.
Nazism became a mass movement only during the Great Depression. The Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future.
Hitler was a powerful and effective speaker. He promised the people a strong nation where all would get employment.
Reconstruction.
Economist Hjalmar Schacht was given the responsibility of economic recovery.
This was to be done through a state-funded work creation programme.
Hitler pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan: One people, one empire, one leader.
He then took Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
Hitler had the unspoken support of England.
Hitler did not stop here. He chose war as a way out of the Economic Crisis.
Resources were to be accumulated through expansion of territory.
In September 1940 Germany invaded Poland. This started a war with France and England.
USA resisted involvement in the war. But when Japan extended its support to Hitler and bombarded Pearl Harbour, the USA entered the war.
The war ended in 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
The Destruction of Democracy.
Hitler achieved the highest position in the cabinet of ministries on 30 January 1933.
Hitler now set out to dismantle the structures of democratic rule.
The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly.
Communists were hurriedly packed off to newly established concentration camps.
All political parties were banned. Special surveillance and security forces were created to control the people and rule with impunity.
