May 1, 2012
Adolf Hitler Caused World War II
As I’m sure most people know Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Germans from August 2 1934 to April 30 1945, but do you know that as Fuhrer of Germany he was the driving force behind the start of WWII. During his reign he tried to bring Germany back to the powerful country it had been before the First World War. In this paper I will prove that Hitler’s actions lead to start of WWII, and I plan to prove how his direct disregard of the Treaty of Versailles pushed the world into WWII. I will begin with a little background on Hitler and what led him to become the Fuhrer of Germany. Hitler was a member of the German army during the First World War and, according to (Kershaw, 2008) after being temporarily blinded from a mustard gas bomb he was sent to Pasewalk, it was there that Hitler learned of the German defeat in WWI. After the war Hitler and the German people held a grudge against the United States and Europe for the passing of the Treaty of Versailles, which stated that Germany was the cause of the war. The Treaty also forced the German people to pay for the damage done during the war. This pushed Germany into a depression that left millions of people without work. This was the first of many reasons that Hitler secretly wished to conquer the European countries of Britain and France. In January of 1933 Hitler was named chancellor of Germany and this marked the beginning of his reign over a country that was in hardship. Hitler began his reign by urging President Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, which would suspend basic rights and allow detention without a trial. Then after the election on March 6, 1933 Hitler brought the Enabling Act to a vote, and by using the Reichstag Fire Decree was able to garner the two thirds majority vote needed to pass the bill which then gave Hitler full legislative power. By doing this Hitler showed that he would do anything
References: 1. Hitler, Adolf (1999) [1925]. Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2. Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 3. Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster 4. Weinberg, Gerhard (1970). The Foreign Policy of Hitler 's Germany Diplomatic Revolution in Europe 1933–1936. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. 5. http://library.thinkquest.org/CRO212881/annex.html 6. http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/nazi.html 7. http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/hitler/hitler.htm 8. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/adolf_hitler