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 |  Subject: ~~ ThE MeN OF HistorY (HETLIR) ~~  Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:31 pm | |
|  ADOLF HITLER Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th April 1889, in Braunau on the river Inn between Austria and Germany. The son of an Austrian customs officer, Alois Schickelgruber Hitler, age 52 and a girl in her 20s, Karla Poelzl Hitler. His grandfather was a wandering miller, Johann Georg Hiedler who had an affair with Anne Marie Schickelgruber. In 1837 she gave birth to an illegitimate Alois. Adolf had a sister Paula. His life was one of misery in part with a father who sort comfort in drink. His mother wanted him to be a monk but was expelled for smoking. They moved to Leoning in Linz where he did well at school. From 1900 to 1904, he attended Realschule at Linz and from 1904 to 1905 at Steyr. Adolf left school at 16 without graduating.
In October 1907, when he was 18, Hitler left his mother who was dying of cancer and went to Vienna. In December 1908, his mother died. For the next five years he lived on charity, odd jobs and selling his sketches. In Vienna, Adolf learned to hate. He rejected the teachings of Marx and he enjoyed Luegar. Jews were Marxists and could take over the world. In cheap cafes he gave political speeches, people started to listen to this sickly harried young man with the hypnotic eyes. He went to Munich in 1913.
When war broke out in 1914, because he had been rejected for military service, he wrote to the King of Bavaria and was assigned to the 16th Bavarian Infantry and sent to the front. In four years he took part in 47 battles. He was wounded twice and gassed. He received the Iron Cross, 2nd class in 1914 and the Iron Cross 1st class in August 1918. He never made further than Lance Corporal. This is where he learned about war, power and its uses. Everything sprang from there. What he wanted to do was bring Germany back to being a great power. He used many methods, including political agitation in 1923. He built up a great party, The national Socialist Party. He explained the depression and it, indeed the unemployment helped carry him to total power.
He became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 at the age of 44 and built
up Germanys military power as part of the propaganda. In 1940, when the German army was supposed to be overwhelming, the French had more tanks than Germany.
Most evidence indicates that Hitler contemplated war as early as 1938 when he realised Britain and France had given in. When Germany went to war with Poland in 1939, it lasted only three weeks and when Britain and France did nothing to help Poland, Hitler assumed it was because they couldnt.
In 1938 he became head of the three services but never combined them. Operated separately at a distance, a rivalry between the army, navy and air force started. There were still commander in chiefs of the forces and they made most of the decisions. When in 1939, Hitler insisted that there must be an offensive against France, the generals hesitated. But Hitler decided, above them to invade France, within weeks France was defeated. With 25,000 dead and no loss to Germany. Though others carried it out, it was Hitlers stroke of genius that did it. It never crossed Hitlers mind that Britain would continue the war after France had been defeated.
He was never interested in the battle of Britain and went to Berchtesgaden, suspecting that there would be no invasion. Thereafter began his development of power and he proved all his generals wrong, they had said a total defeat of France was impossible. Most people say that a victor needs a supremacy to carry out invasions, Germany had none, yet destroyed what had become one of the greatest armies in Europe.
From June 1940 to June 1941 with the exception of minor conflicts in Greece, there was peace on the continent of Europe. Hitler had achieved what no previous great man had achieved, not even Napoleon, he brought all Europe up to the Russian front under his domination. Some had been conquered, some had been annexed to Germany. Two Sweden and
Switzerland were independent but were bound by the war machine.
Germany had become a great power but some wondered why he did not stop. But if you are a war lord, you do not want to give up. Hitler used other arguments, he did not want to demobilize the army when he hadnt finished his campaigns and he was a man, despite his victories, full of apprehension.
In 1941, he was convinced that if he didnt strike a blow against Russia, maybe one day they would turn against him and betray him, so he invaded. Russia had done everything to avoid war and this time when Hitler said well invade, his generals did nothing to oppose him. He thought Russia would collapse within a month. The Russian front surrounded and surrendered. But the Russian armies had not collapsed. They decided to encircle Moscow with thousands surrendering and fronts collapsing.
This was the turning point of the second world war, in June 1941, Germany was acknowledged victor, dominant over the whole of Europe. In December 1941 the German forces halted in front of Moscow. They were never to take it. For the moment, Hitler appreciated that total victory could not be achieved on the other hand, he was confident that they could renew the campaign next year.
There was an almost total collapse of the generals. No new ones were appointed and Hitler became head of them all although on the Western Front and Italian Front the commanders in chiefs still had daily orders from Hitler. It was at this time that he became a real recluse, settling down in an underground bunker, running the war a long way from the front. He only went to the front line once and his only other public appearance was in November 1943.
Hitler sounds a most unattractive man but he could impress people, not only make them fear him but inspire them again and again. Even hi generals, faced with problems could only have to be with him half an hour and they could
come away convinced that the Fuhrer could win anything, anywhere.
But Stalingrad was the first great disaster at the German side. Hitler refused to withdraw his troops when Stalingrad held firm. In January 1943, the German forces surrended. Throughout 1943, the Germans suffered losses and when in 1944, the allies landed in France there was pressure on both sides. Some people wondered why they could not be a compromise peace. But Hitler never contemplated it. For him although the war could never be won, it was not necessary that it should be lost. With, in 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, he felt that he had another ally and this declared war on America. In an extraordinary remark he said We have chosen the wrong side, we ought to be allies of the Anglo-Saxon powers. But providence has imposed on us this world historical mistake
He hoped that sooner or later, Britain and America and Russia would quarrel and eventually, instead of battering away at Germany, would ask fo her help and instead of being the enemy of the world, into an ally. The key power which would swing the whole world situation differently.
Right up to the end, when things were going badly wrong, Hitler could give only one order, hang on. Right till the very end, Hitler believed that some new miracle weapon would be discovered that would tip the scales. We now know this was a bluff. German scientists although knowing the methods had not got anywhere near the atomic bomb. Hitler had not been interested at the time so didnt push it. When he did consider it, it was too late.
He became in the end, physically a broken man. His left shoulder was shattered, at any rate crippled from a bomb in July 1944, trembling all over, dragging his feet, hardly able to speak and yet, there was that same magic, the inspiration with which people would come away.
Generals who commanded phantom armies, would break away believing they would crush the world. Few of them could break loose from Hitlers magnetic personality and from the promise of victory. At the very end, he
dismissed most of his staff and lived in a fantasy where he was still in control. When goering hinted that he would try for peace, even to the point of surrender, Hitler had him arrested.
When he realised that the war was lost, he also found he was on his own. He had no confidants, no friends. Most round him were acquaintances. He was a solitary man and sometimes, very rarely did he accept advice or decisions from others. For instance, the terrible massacre of the Jews was inspired more by Himmler than Hitler although he took it up.
On July 20th 1944, a bomb in a briefcase was left under a table where Hitler and some of his men were having a conference. The bomb exploded but Hitler only received minor injuries. It had been moved from its original position which could have killed Hitler and put by a table leg which protected him. The plan was carried out by several generals and others who had once been close to him. They believed he was leading Germany to disaster.
Some had been planning it for years, roundups of the men and women went on for months. At Hitlers orders, the leaders who had not committed suicide were hanged in a cruel way and filmed for his enjoyment. These men are greatly honoured in Germany today. The key men were:- | |
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