The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler James Cross Giblin. The Holocaust

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1 Carter Sweet The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler James Cross Giblin The Holocaust Holocaust is a Greek originating word that roughly translates to sacrifice by fire. The holocaust was a state sponsored, systematic murdering of approximately 11 million people. It all started on April 1st,1933 when Hitler began the boycott on all jewish run businesses in Germany. In September of 1935 Hitler created laws eliminating jews from being in public activities and stripping them of their citizenship. Then, on the nights of the 9th and the10th of November, 1938 the final solution began. Hitler called his plan to eliminate the jews the final solution. On this night over 300,000 jews would be taken to concentration camps. Along with this many jewish businesses and synagogues would be destroyed and burned. During the holocaust the German Nazis and their counterparts persecuted many different groups based on religion, political position, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and even because of physical disability or mental retardation. They deemed these groups racially inferior and believed that removing them would create overall happiness, a better world, and a better economy. In 1933 the population of European jews stood above 9 million.

2 By the end of the holocaust almost 6 million of those jews would be killed in the most dramatic way possible. Way of murdering these prisoners ranged from death by fire, gas chambers, to death by exhaustion and starvation. Timeline 1. April 20, 1889: Hitler s birth : Hitler moves to Vienna to attend art school : Hitler move to Munich to avoid military service for Habsburg Empire : Hitler signs up for German military service because of WWI : Hitler is temporarily blinded from some sort of gas during British attack 6. Hitler is promoted to be in the political ranks of the German army(also works as a spy during this time) : Hitler is discharged from the army and then goes to work for the National Socialist German Workers Party(Nazi Party) : With little resistance Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party : Hitler and 2000 Nazi s march through Munich to the Beer Hall to take over the Bavarian politics meeting, the day after they march the streets and are shot upon by police, Hitler is captured and serves 9 months for treason : Hitler re founds the Nazi Party : Hitler s half sister and her child move in. Rumors say they were romantically involved with each other. Hitler denied these claims : The Nazi Party increases parliament from 14 members to 107. Now the second largest political party in Germany : Hitler challenges Paul von Hindenburg for presidency, but fails : Hitler becomes German citizen so he can run for presidency : The Enabling Act passes. Power of legislation passes to Hitler s cabinet, virtually making him a dictator : After the death of the president, Hitler becomes Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor, and abolishes the title of president : Hitler re arms Germany with the aim of undoing the Treaty of Versailles and uniting all the German people : German army occupies Sudetenland.

3 : The Crystal Night occurs, 7,500 Jewish shops are destroyed and 400 synagogues are burnt. The attack is portrayed as a spontaneous reaction to the death of a German diplomat by a Jewish refugee in Paris. It is actually orchestrated by the Nazi party who also kill many Jews and send 20,000 to concentration camps : The Nazis occupy Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France. Romania and Yugoslavia are invaded : Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Colonel Stauffenberg, who places a bomb in a briefcase under a table close to Hitler. As a result, Hitler purges the army of all possible suspects : Soviet troops enter Nazi Germany; Hitler decides to stay in Berlin no matter what; Hitler commits suicide with his wife of two days, Eva Braun 23. The holocaust is over Unfamiliar words/phrases 1. Fuhrer German for leader 2. Gestapo The secret state police of the German Army 3. Nuremberg Laws Anti Jewish laws enacted in 1935(denial of citizenship, segregation, and more) 4.Partisans A group of organized guerrilla fighters who aimed to destroy the German war effort 5. Third Reich The Third Empire Name given to the Nazis 6. Yiddish Language spoken by many jews 7. Allies The nations fighting against Germany and its friendlies 8. Antisemitism Dislike of hatred toward Jews 9. Anschluss The German annexation of Austria 10. Warsaw The capital of Poland 11.Wehrmact The German Armed forces 12. Treaty of Versailles One of the treaties signed to end WWI 13. Swastika An ancient symbol that used to represent life. Now represents Nazi Party 14. Porgom Massacres carried out on Jewish villages 15. Majdanek Concentration camp located in Poland 16. Labor Camps Camps the Jews were sent to, made them work until

4 they had no will to live 17.Lager German slang for camp 18.Lageralteste Senior camp inmate 19. Kapo A camp prisoner put in charge of a group of other camp inmates 20. Halfling German slang for inmate 21. Ghetto A blocked of section of the city where jews were allowed to live in terrible conditions 22. Genocide The attempted extermination of a race or nation 23. Der Stuermer An anti semitic newspaper 24. Bund Jewish Socialist Party 25. Bricha Name of an underground plan that would remove the Jews from Nazi territory Top 10 Things Learned 1. The number one thing, I think, that we should take from the holocaust is to not follow your leader blindly. I m not saying that everyone was following blindly. Some people might not have know what was going on in concentration camps, but some did and did not act upon it. Had someone opposed their leader and acted upon it in the beginning it might not have been so bad. Sitting idly by is just as bad for the downed party as helping the unjust authority. 2. We also should take into account the danger of power. The first mistake that lead to the holocaust was that Hitler was given all of the power in Germany. I understand that Germany was in a rough spot and was just fiending for someone to help but if Hitler didn t have all of the power in Germany things definitely would have been different. 3. I believe that we learned it is important to protect the powerless, no matter the cost. Had the citizens, not being persecuted, stood up for what was right and attempted to protect the Jews the war may have turned out quite differently. 4. We learned about the responsibility to educate. We need to take the information that we have on the holocaust to be sure mass genocide does not happen again. Instead of acting when it gets out of hand, we need to

5 nip it in the bud. 5.The holocaust teaches us what it is to be human. Power is a trait that some humans want more than life itself. I guarantee an event like the holocaust will happen again in the future. It may not be in our lifetime but someone will try to take authority of the world again. We must be prepared and we must have the know how to stop it. 6. It teaches us the power of uniting against an unjust cause. Had not everyone fight, who could, we may not have defeated Nazi Germany. 7. The holocaust shows us the frightening power of hate. We need to preach equality and inalienable rights. We need to not single out groups for any size shape or reason. This will just continue stereotyping and racism. 8. I learned that you can t judge a book by its cover. Hitler started out his life wanting to be an artist, and then went on to try and change and rule the world. 9. Sometimes violence is the answer. While i do oppose most wars, had we acted any later to Hitler's plans to take over we may not have won. 10. Put yourself in others shoes. Think about who you are effecting by your decisions, maybe you will think differently.

6 Passage I chose this passage because I believe it perfectly shows Hitler s disdain for other lives. In a lunchtime conversations between him and Himmler(a high ranking Nazi official), Hitler stated, One must act radically. When one pulls a tooth, one does it in a single pull, and the pain quickly goes away. The Jews must clear out of Europe..For my part, I restrict myself to telling them they must go away. But if they refuse to go voluntarily I see no other solution but extermination. This shows that nothing will get in the way of Hitlers plans, not even human life. I understand that Hitler had very clear plans that he wished to play out in the right way, but what I don't understand is Hitlers deep hate for the Jewish community in Europe. The only reason I believe he had such a beef with the european jews was because someone had to take the blame for Germany's past years of trouble. I believe that Hitler went after the jews because they were an easy target and would not be able to put up much resistance. Hitler basically used them as a scapegoat, blaming them for Germany s problems and then eliminating them. This gained the support of followers while instilling fear into the everyone else and the rest of the world. To Hitler's followers he was a savior, to the rest of the world he was a monster who was not afraid to take a life to prove a point. In my opinion, this was a cruel but well

7 thought out plan. Report on Hitler Hitler was not born and brought up to be the leader of the Nazi Party, he was born into a simple normal life. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th, He was son to Alois Hitler, a strict, sometimes quoted to be overly aggressive father. He was short tempered and often hit young Adolf. Adolf's father was so overly brutal about his mistakes because his brother ended up in prison and Alois did not want his youngest son to turn out the same way. In Hitler s elementary through high school life he was said to be very quiet and not very excited by school work. Hitlers live goal was to be a famous artist. He spent most of his days drawing instead of doing school work, said one of his teachers. Hitler even went on to Vienna to pursue his career to his full extent. Hitler made little money though, this is when people believe he started having a strong hate for the jewish community, and soon after enrolled in the German army. In the German army he was nothing special, at first. But after a while he soon learned his natural talent of public speaking. He would lead pep talks to his peers, never losing the crowd. Hitler would soon be injured in the war and would lose his eyesight temporarily. While he was in the hospital Germany lost the war and Hitler was devastated. After this Hitler then join the Nazi Party, which was very different than the one we recognize today, but he ended up leading it and turning it into the Nazi Party we know.