How Did Hitler Rise To Power?
World War II is an event in history that will forever leave an imprint on the world. But what makes this event incredibly significant is the immense growth in nationalism and the true evilness that surrounded it. In Germany, once Adolf Hitler, the brains behind this magnificent time period, gained his power and respect, he took every right in abusing it. Not only did he plan on taking over the world, he planned on taking over the people, their rights, their land, and society as a whole. Hitler’s rise to power in Germany began a period of extreme nationalism throughout the nation that brought his fanatical ideas of racial superiority to life in which he enacted a harsh assault against Jews, viewed as a scapegoat for Germany’s problems, and a
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collection of other minorities as well that were viewed as unfit for society.
To conclude World War I, the Treaty of Versailles was created. This ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. Many Germans felt that they had been betrayed at the end of the war, and this helped spark their involvement in World War II. After the war, France forced Germany to pay severe reparations to France and Belgium due to all of the damage they had caused. Germany owed nearly thirty one billion dollars, but they did not feel necessary to pay. Nevertheless, Germany had just gone through a harsh depression of their own, allowing the economy to become corrupt. Germany was very angered by the money they owed, and felt it was unfair to them. Thus, they believed in extreme nationalism, one nation gaining the power to take over nations. Additionally, the idea of Social Darwinism played a role in Germany’s actions. This idea is based off of “survival of the fittest”, and if Germany did not prove their strength as a nation, their nationalistic plans would fail. Adolf Hitler was the trusted man in charge of completing this task, something he had been planning and knew he was capable of.
The psychological reasoning behind this horrific time period is based solely on Germany’s own defense mechanisms. Hitler convinced the people of Germany that they were being cheated into paying unnecessary fines. The citizens of Germany deeply trusted Hitler because they felt he could repair financial issues that resulted from Germany’s depression. An article regarding the motivations behind the Holocaust states:
The Holocaust happened in large part because an overpowering government took advantage of weak people who just wanted to be provided with direction during a time of disparity. The people followed their government wholeheartedly because their faith in their previous government, the government where they had lost their possessions and valuables, had been compromised.
People typically trust their government, and in this case, Germany’s citizens allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to take control because they trusted them. However, once they gained this power, the citizens no longer had a choice.
It is common knowledge that Adolf Hitler rose to power, took over Germany, and executed millions of people.
But how did Hitler rise to power? Hitler had a plan to create Germany as a national power. He utilized cunning tactics in order to convince the desperate citizens that significant changes would be done. One of these tactics was propaganda. Propaganda brainwashed citizens by altering advertisements and news reports to make the Nazi Party seem more innocent than they were. Nonetheless, the Nazi Party was successful in appealing to those of the middle and lower classes, who were specifically affected in the depression. In a newspaper article published in 1933, Roger B. Nelson explains, “The German Fascists have learned to dramatize their talk, their deeds, their very existence. It is the drama of Fascist propaganda and the smooth functioning of the Nazi propaganda machine hat have generated the phenomenal rise of Hitler's party.” Society believed everything that the Nazis said and trusted that this new government would benefit the economy. Once Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, citizens viewed Hitler as a newfound savior, and they respected him, obeyed him, and worshipped him. If they failed to do this, they would be tortured, or even worse, executed. What ultimately gave Hitler the power he needed was “The Law to Remove Stress from the People and the State”, enacted in 1933, which gave Hitler to pass any laws without permission from the Reichstag. This allowed him to go against any rights that society obtained from the German
Constitution.
Hitler strived to take over the world. He believed that his country, Germany, and the ideal German citizens that belonged to it, were the only ones sufficient enough to take over other nations. This spark of nationalism revolved around the common enemy of Jewish people. Through Hitler’s speeches and writings found, “Hitler spread his beliefs in racial "purity" and in the superiority of the "Germanic race"—what he called an Aryan "master race." He pronounced that his race must remain pure in order to one day take over the world. For Hitler, the ideal "Aryan" was blond, blue-eyed, and tall”. When Hitler became Chancellor, this overarching belief became the government ideology and new law of acceptance.
Focusing on the most common victims of the Holocaust, Hitler and the Nazis believed that the Jewish race was a “poisonous race”. Hitler always held feelings of anti-semitism, mostly because he grew up in a household that was bitter, angry, and heavily anti-semitic. However, the Nazis blamed the Jewish race as a scapegoat for their own depression. Although the economic depression affected the whole country of Germany, they blamed who they felt was keeping all the money: the Jews. Explained in an article regarding the motivations of the Holocaust, “The Nazis blamed the Jews because many Jewish citizens were still wealthy while everyone else was monetarily suffering, using economic inequalities to agitate relations between groups. This began to fuel the anti-semitism that the Nazi Party endorsed”. Although the Jewish people were not directly related to the depression, the Nazi Party made it seem that way. Also seen in a warning article written by Alvin Johnson during World War II, he says, “Hitler could have talked himself black in the face on parliamentary shortcomings and the iniquity of the Treaty of Versailles. He had the genius to blow up into a flame the endemically smoldering embers of anti-Semitism”. Alvin Johnson was warning the United States of the increase of anti-semitism in Germany, and proving that although Hitler had these views based on Germany’s feelings toward the Treaty of Versailles, America must refrain from these same feelings for they are completely inhumane.
In November 1932, Hitler was imprisoned after his first failed attempt to overthrow the German government. Here, he wrote the infamous book Mein Kampf. In this autobiography, Hitler says, “I could not well continue to doubt that here it was a matter, not of Germans of another religion, but of a separate nation… Now, wherever I went, I saw Jews, and the more I saw, the more strikingly and obviously were they different from other people”. Since Hitler acquired these anti-semitic views, he has increasingly studied the Jewish religion. In this autobiography, he discusses how he not only dislikes the Jews, but how he ultimately sees them as a complete different nation than those of other religions. Regardless of their nationality, even German, if they have any form of Jewish descent, they were seen as separate and outcasted from other Germans. In this work, Hitler also exposed:
What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe.
Hitler believed that the creator of universe intended for the universe to merely consist of this perfect Aryan race that Hitler stressed. Everyone else, including Jews and other minority groups, were strictly unwanted on Earth. Due to this belief, Hitler executed millions of innocent people who he thought were a burden to society.
Although Jewish people were Hitler’s main priority, there was a plethora of other different minority groups that felt his wrath. These groups included Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, non-Jewish Polish civilians, Serb civilians, people with disabilities, Gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, Christains, criminal offenders, German political opponents and resistance activists, those with African descent, and homosexuals. Hitler believed that all of these categories of people were “inferior” to the German society, and therefore should be exiled from Earth. Those with disabilities ranged from those struggling with slight mental illness all the way to those who were institutionalized. It also included those were restricted to wheelchairs or born deaf or blind. Teachers at schools were encouraged to measure childrens’ features in order to determine if they fit in with the perfect Aryan society. If they did not, it was a moment of humiliation and isolation for the Jews, Gypsies, and other groups. In addition, unwanted groups were sterilized, refraining them from being able to reproduce any more children. In an article acknowledging the other victims, it is stated, “In efforts to breed a master race, more than 300,000 German Aryans were sterilized and countless numbers were gassed, under the ‘Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring.’” This law gave the Nazis the power to kill or take away people’s rights of having children in order to prevent any more rejects to be born into their ideal society. From a statement issued by Heinreich Himmler in 1942, he states, “Persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, and Russians… would be delivered by the Ministry of Justice to the S.S. to be worked to death”. These groups were most likely put into labor or concentration camps where they were tortured until death all because the Nazis disapproved of them. On the other hand, homosexuals were viewed as breaking the law, for they were either executed or sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear a pink triangle in order to identify themselves as homosexuals. Furthermore, Jehovah witnesses were seen as extremely controversial towards the Nazis because they did not agree with war and violence. They also opposed the Nazi flag, for they were punished.
Beginning with Germany's views on the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazis were able to gain power and abused it to the point where a multitude of innocent people were punished. Adolf Hitler would continue to spread his biased and evil views for years before other nations became involved and put a halt to his disgraceful actions. Six million Jews, along with millions of other minorities, were persecuted and tortured because Hitler was granted his wish of power and nationalism. Thus, the Holocaust and World War II will forever hold an imprint on the world.
collection of other minorities as well that were viewed as unfit for society.
To conclude World War I, the Treaty of Versailles was created. This ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. Many Germans felt that they had been betrayed at the end of the war, and this helped spark their involvement in World War II. After the war, France forced Germany to pay severe reparations to France and Belgium due to all of the damage they had caused. Germany owed nearly thirty one billion dollars, but they did not feel necessary to pay. Nevertheless, Germany had just gone through a harsh depression of their own, allowing the economy to become corrupt. Germany was very angered by the money they owed, and felt it was unfair to them. Thus, they believed in extreme nationalism, one nation gaining the power to take over nations. Additionally, the idea of Social Darwinism played a role in Germany’s actions. This idea is based off of “survival of the fittest”, and if Germany did not prove their strength as a nation, their nationalistic plans would fail. Adolf Hitler was the trusted man in charge of completing this task, something he had been planning and knew he was capable of.
The psychological reasoning behind this horrific time period is based solely on Germany’s own defense mechanisms. Hitler convinced the people of Germany that they were being cheated into paying unnecessary fines. The citizens of Germany deeply trusted Hitler because they felt he could repair financial issues that resulted from Germany’s depression. An article regarding the motivations behind the Holocaust states:
The Holocaust happened in large part because an overpowering government took advantage of weak people who just wanted to be provided with direction during a time of disparity. The people followed their government wholeheartedly because their faith in their previous government, the government where they had lost their possessions and valuables, had been compromised.
People typically trust their government, and in this case, Germany’s citizens allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to take control because they trusted them. However, once they gained this power, the citizens no longer had a choice.
It is common knowledge that Adolf Hitler rose to power, took over Germany, and executed millions of people.
But how did Hitler rise to power? Hitler had a plan to create Germany as a national power. He utilized cunning tactics in order to convince the desperate citizens that significant changes would be done. One of these tactics was propaganda. Propaganda brainwashed citizens by altering advertisements and news reports to make the Nazi Party seem more innocent than they were. Nonetheless, the Nazi Party was successful in appealing to those of the middle and lower classes, who were specifically affected in the depression. In a newspaper article published in 1933, Roger B. Nelson explains, “The German Fascists have learned to dramatize their talk, their deeds, their very existence. It is the drama of Fascist propaganda and the smooth functioning of the Nazi propaganda machine hat have generated the phenomenal rise of Hitler's party.” Society believed everything that the Nazis said and trusted that this new government would benefit the economy. Once Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, citizens viewed Hitler as a newfound savior, and they respected him, obeyed him, and worshipped him. If they failed to do this, they would be tortured, or even worse, executed. What ultimately gave Hitler the power he needed was “The Law to Remove Stress from the People and the State”, enacted in 1933, which gave Hitler to pass any laws without permission from the Reichstag. This allowed him to go against any rights that society obtained from the German
Constitution.
Hitler strived to take over the world. He believed that his country, Germany, and the ideal German citizens that belonged to it, were the only ones sufficient enough to take over other nations. This spark of nationalism revolved around the common enemy of Jewish people. Through Hitler’s speeches and writings found, “Hitler spread his beliefs in racial "purity" and in the superiority of the "Germanic race"—what he called an Aryan "master race." He pronounced that his race must remain pure in order to one day take over the world. For Hitler, the ideal "Aryan" was blond, blue-eyed, and tall”. When Hitler became Chancellor, this overarching belief became the government ideology and new law of acceptance.
Focusing on the most common victims of the Holocaust, Hitler and the Nazis believed that the Jewish race was a “poisonous race”. Hitler always held feelings of anti-semitism, mostly because he grew up in a household that was bitter, angry, and heavily anti-semitic. However, the Nazis blamed the Jewish race as a scapegoat for their own depression. Although the economic depression affected the whole country of Germany, they blamed who they felt was keeping all the money: the Jews. Explained in an article regarding the motivations of the Holocaust, “The Nazis blamed the Jews because many Jewish citizens were still wealthy while everyone else was monetarily suffering, using economic inequalities to agitate relations between groups. This began to fuel the anti-semitism that the Nazi Party endorsed”. Although the Jewish people were not directly related to the depression, the Nazi Party made it seem that way. Also seen in a warning article written by Alvin Johnson during World War II, he says, “Hitler could have talked himself black in the face on parliamentary shortcomings and the iniquity of the Treaty of Versailles. He had the genius to blow up into a flame the endemically smoldering embers of anti-Semitism”. Alvin Johnson was warning the United States of the increase of anti-semitism in Germany, and proving that although Hitler had these views based on Germany’s feelings toward the Treaty of Versailles, America must refrain from these same feelings for they are completely inhumane.
In November 1932, Hitler was imprisoned after his first failed attempt to overthrow the German government. Here, he wrote the infamous book Mein Kampf. In this autobiography, Hitler says, “I could not well continue to doubt that here it was a matter, not of Germans of another religion, but of a separate nation… Now, wherever I went, I saw Jews, and the more I saw, the more strikingly and obviously were they different from other people”. Since Hitler acquired these anti-semitic views, he has increasingly studied the Jewish religion. In this autobiography, he discusses how he not only dislikes the Jews, but how he ultimately sees them as a complete different nation than those of other religions. Regardless of their nationality, even German, if they have any form of Jewish descent, they were seen as separate and outcasted from other Germans. In this work, Hitler also exposed:
What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe.
Hitler believed that the creator of universe intended for the universe to merely consist of this perfect Aryan race that Hitler stressed. Everyone else, including Jews and other minority groups, were strictly unwanted on Earth. Due to this belief, Hitler executed millions of innocent people who he thought were a burden to society.
Although Jewish people were Hitler’s main priority, there was a plethora of other different minority groups that felt his wrath. These groups included Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, non-Jewish Polish civilians, Serb civilians, people with disabilities, Gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, Christains, criminal offenders, German political opponents and resistance activists, those with African descent, and homosexuals. Hitler believed that all of these categories of people were “inferior” to the German society, and therefore should be exiled from Earth. Those with disabilities ranged from those struggling with slight mental illness all the way to those who were institutionalized. It also included those were restricted to wheelchairs or born deaf or blind. Teachers at schools were encouraged to measure childrens’ features in order to determine if they fit in with the perfect Aryan society. If they did not, it was a moment of humiliation and isolation for the Jews, Gypsies, and other groups. In addition, unwanted groups were sterilized, refraining them from being able to reproduce any more children. In an article acknowledging the other victims, it is stated, “In efforts to breed a master race, more than 300,000 German Aryans were sterilized and countless numbers were gassed, under the ‘Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring.’” This law gave the Nazis the power to kill or take away people’s rights of having children in order to prevent any more rejects to be born into their ideal society. From a statement issued by Heinreich Himmler in 1942, he states, “Persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, and Russians… would be delivered by the Ministry of Justice to the S.S. to be worked to death”. These groups were most likely put into labor or concentration camps where they were tortured until death all because the Nazis disapproved of them. On the other hand, homosexuals were viewed as breaking the law, for they were either executed or sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear a pink triangle in order to identify themselves as homosexuals. Furthermore, Jehovah witnesses were seen as extremely controversial towards the Nazis because they did not agree with war and violence. They also opposed the Nazi flag, for they were punished.
Beginning with Germany's views on the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazis were able to gain power and abused it to the point where a multitude of innocent people were punished. Adolf Hitler would continue to spread his biased and evil views for years before other nations became involved and put a halt to his disgraceful actions. Six million Jews, along with millions of other minorities, were persecuted and tortured because Hitler was granted his wish of power and nationalism. Thus, the Holocaust and World War II will forever hold an imprint on the world.