Adolf Hitler, leader of third ReIch-Fast facts

Adolf Hitler was a fanatical leader, a megalomaniac who led his country and many others into the abyss.

Some historians believe that Adolf Hitler thought that his mission in life was to rid the world of Jews, that even if he didn't build the Third Reich for 1000 years, he would be celebrating.

For eliminating the Jewish population from the world, I don't know how you begin to deal with that kind of madness, but that's who he was.

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau Ami in Austria on April 20th, 1889. Hitler's childhood was an uneasy one. His father died when he was very young and he was not a good student.

In his.

Teen years.

In his prewar Viennese life, you start seeing the.

Attractions to.

The anti-Semitic and rabid anti.

Bolshevik attitudes. His name was not Adolf Hitler, you know. It was Schnickelberger, and he was a corporal in World War One. But suddenly he was the man who was giving voice to a long history of German pride. The consequences of World War One for Germany were extraordinary. I mean the victors, The Western alliance placed such penalties on them that they could barely survive.

And so they were open to the idea of someone like Hitler who could give voice to their most base fears. And he very candidly knew just how to do that.

Hitler Very.

Quickly after the World War One began to engage in political activity, joining and helping start the German Workers Party in 1919.

This party later became the Nazi Party. In 1923, Adolf Hitler conspired with other right wing politicians to overthrow.

The Republic. In response to this, Hitler was sentenced to prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf expressing his radical, rabid beliefs.

He was irrationally anti-Semitic and he was able to use any semitism as a tool for his rise to power. In January of 1933, Hitler becomes Chancellor as a result of the fire of the Reichstag in February of 1933.

Hitler.

Is afforded.

Wide-ranging police and political powers, he's able really to begin the process of forging the dictatorship the.

Totalitarian state.

People who thought about international policies were very concerned about what Adolf Hitler was up to, because you would see those great rallies in the streets of Berlin with.

Hundreds of thousands of people marching in uniform and goose stepping their way down the plots and raising their arms and salute to Adolf Hitler. And then he invaded Poland.

He thought the British and the French would not declare war on him and it would be a quick campaign to subdue Poland.

But on September 3rd, 1939, Britain declared war. France followed suit. In June 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest land war in history. In December 1941, Hitler also declared war on the United States.

World War Two was fought on six of the seven continents. 50 million people perished. the United States, Great Britain and the Western Allies were aligned with Russia to try to crush.

Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Hitler felt adamant that it was his duty to mankind to rid the world of all Jews, and he ordered all possible resources and manpower to fulfill this horrendous task in the socalled concentration camps, the death camps. The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6th, 1944 marked the turning point of the war in less than a year.

Germany would surrender to the Allies. An estimated 6 million Jews were killed during World War Two in May of 1945. Adolf Hitler committed suicide together with his wife Eva Brown, who he married just before that.

I think of all the tyrants in history, you have to put Adolf Hitler right at the top. He almost destroyed civilization as we know it during the 20th century. I don't think that history will ever, ever forgive him. Or should it?

Will be endlessly fascinated by what A drove him and B why the German people decided to follow him not just off the Cliff, but into the darkest hellhole in history.

Mark Twain is.

Now thought of as America's first celebrity.

Because he was.

So.

Good at.

Capturing the public imagination.

And it became important.

To him to.