The Life and Legacy of Adolf Hitler Claudia Clare Junior Division Historical Paper Paper length 1912 words 1 Adolf Hitler is a man who rose up to be the chancellor of Germany. By using his smart tactics, Hitler persuaded the people of Germany, when all were lost from the hope of having any success from World War I and the great depression. Hitler created a political party called the Nazi party. This party was originally known as the National German Workers Party (Barrett). He created the design for the flags and banners which had an ancient symbol on it called the swastika. Soon enough he became appointed chancellor and then he became known as Führer, a dictatorial leader after Chancellor ​ ​ Hindenburg died. Hitler gave Germany confidence and lifted their spirits up. He gave jobs to the jobless and built up the economy by introducing the Autobahn, Volkswagen and the People Radio (Bartoletti). Unfortunately, he had an insidious plan. His plan was to practically brainwash the people, racially cleans Germany, and start a war which was later known as World War II. He did this because he was power hungry and wanted to rule over the world. Adolf Hitler was one of the most egregious leaders of the 20th century who is best known for his tragic actions during World War II. He began his leadership triumphantly by helping Germany grow economically (Barrett). He was best known for all of his destructive actions during World War II and for all the deaths that this man caused, and the families destroyed. Adolf Hitler was born on August 20, 1889, in Austria. When he was three years old, he moved with his family to Germany. At the age of 13, Adolf Hitler's father died (The History Place). Adolf Hitler was interested in art and went to an art school to get a scholarship, but he failed the entrance exams. Later at the age of 25, Adolf Hitler was a soldier during World War I. He fought with the Germans and earned the first and second 2 class Iron Crosses. Once he got out of the army, he went into politics and became a politician, for a group which later became the Nazis. Hitler was sentenced to jail for protesting. While he was in jail in 1925, Hitler wrote a book called, Mein Kampf, in ​ ​ English means “My Struggles.” After this, he soon became vice president of Germany. When Chancellor Hindenburg died, in 1933 of lung cancer, Hitler decided to take this position, and he became the Füher of Germany. Adolf Hitler had triumphed in Germany by making the people have more hope when all was lost after the effects of World War I and the economic depression in Germany during the 1920s (Barrett). He rose Germany up and gave the jobless jobs. In Hitler's speech, the Appell an die Nation, he stated, “Wenn die Nation ihre Pflicht erfüllt, ​ ​ muß dann einst ein Tag erstehen, der uns wiedergibt ein Reich der Ehre und Freiheit, Arbeit und Brot.” This statement basically explains how he believes that someday Germany will emerge and that on this day, Germany will be a country with freedom, honor, work, and bread (food). Hitler also created/introduced things like the People’s ​ ​ Radio, the Volkswagen and the Autobahn (Barrett). At the beginning of his leadership, Adolf Hitler tried to conquer back all the land that Germany lost in World War I. A triumph for Hitler was that he became a good politician and made his way up to getting appointed Chancellor of Germany. Hitler also was involved when they had the Olympics in Germany (Barrett). Hitler made Germany stronger and gave them hope at the beginning of his political life, but after a while, this man became very power crazed and he wanted to be the ruler of Europe, and then the world. 3 Adolf Hitler caused many tragedies for which he is mostly remembered for. He was triumphant at first but then he became power hungry and everything changed from then on. Hitler wrote a book that was about his plan for Germany that included some horrific ideas that was called Mein Kampf. Since he was a politician he needed a ​ ​ scapegoat. His scapegoat was, unfortunately, the Jewish people. He humiliated and tortured them, and sent them to concentration camps where many died, which is now called the Holocaust (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The meaning of the Holocaust changed after Hitler's reign and became the mass murder of Jewish people (Editors, History.com” The Holocaust.”). These people were killed because they were described as aliens and Hitler said that they were a threat to Germany and apparently he thought killing them would be the only solution to this problem. He did not only kill about “6 million European Jews”, but Adolf also killed homosexuals, Gypsies, pastors, political opponents, authors and artist that were Jewish or agitators to the Nazi party (McCormick) (Editors, History.com. “The Holocaust.”). He also started World War II, which killed millions of people around the world. He even made people worshiped him in a cult of personality, and made people lose their rights. For example, people lost the right to freedom of religion. German citizens were not allowed to be in contact with foreign people, including listening to foreign radio (Bartoletti). They also didn't have too much privacy, because people including children, from the Hitler Youth group, were told to spy on their parents to make sure that they honored Hitler (Clare) (Bartoletti). People also often lost their privacy, when their letters were over-read by Nazi officials and their phone calls were unknowingly recorded (McCormick). In Nazi Germany, there were 4 many rules and lots of people were discriminated. Hitler also killed some of the people that helped him get into power because those people believed they deserved more power which Hitler did not agree with nor wanted to share (Barrett). Adolf Hitler’s legacy began when he rose to power during the 1920s and 1930s. Hitler joined a political group called the Germans Workers Party, one year after World War I ended, in September 1919. In this group, Hitler rose up in political speaking (Barrett). He was quite good at it, and he started to get the attention of some people, including the person in charge of the Germans Workers Party. Soon enough Hitler was in charge, and he created the group that we now know them as today as, The National Socialist German Workers Party or the Nazi party. Hitler believed that Germany can only have citizens of the German race, not the Jews, even though they were there for hundreds of years (Langley). He still said they were not a German citizen. Many people at the time also agreed with Hitler that the Jewish people were bad because they were always rumors around the world that the Jewish people were trying to ruin things for certain countries (Langley). Just like how some believed in Germany that the Jews were the reason that they lost the war and why some other people like Hitler believed that they were trying to take over the world. Hitler soon decided to run in the presidential election in 1932, where he tried to get rid of his opponents by making that there was only one political party. He soon was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Soon President Hindenburg died of lung cancer and Hitler decided to take over his position in 1933. He quickly started to abuse his power and implemented Article 48 which allowed him to control all of Germany (Editors, History.com. “Weimar Republic”). ​ 5 At the beginning of his leadership, he was a very positive role model for Germany. He gave the jobless jobs which gave Germany a better economy after the effects of the Great Depression and World War l. He then had workers start to build the Autobahn (Highway) (Barrett). But he was secretly building war weapons when he was restricted to. All of a sudden, he got megalomaniac and he started World War II. Hitler is remembered in our history and has a legacy that our World remembers very well. If you hear his name today, people will immediately recall who this person is. He has caused so much damage to our way of life during his reign. He caused a World War and the Holocaust, one of the deadliest events in our history which got a new meaning after Adolf Hitler. He was discriminatory towards certain groups of people. He called these people terrible things and sent them to concentration camps where they were tortured and killed. Since he was discriminating people, mostly the Jewish people. To the Jews and the rest of the World, Hitler has a bad legacy of himself. The Jewish people are affected by his legacy most. He intentionally killed the Jews on purpose and sent a large amount of people to “pogroms, massacres by firing squads, forced labor camps, and gas chambers” (Langley). There were 9 million Jewish people in Europe before the War (Langley). An estimated total of 5,596,000 Jewish people were murdered across Europe (Langley). Their race was almost cleaned out. Since this man also started a World War our world has a legacy of this monstrous man of the 20th century. We remember him because he started, a World War, the Holocaust and he had killed at least 50 million people. 6 Adolf also affected many people's lives, including my family in a way. My grandmother was in the Hitler Youth, which was a group for the children of Germany (Clare).