Who was Hitler?

1. Who was Hitler? • Born in Austria. • Reared Catholic. • Aspired to be an artist. Rejected by Vienna Academy of Arts on two occasions. Never attended college. • Exposed to antisemitic influences while in Vienna. • Moved to Germany to avoid Austrian draft. Fought for Germany in World War I.

2. Born in Austria Braunau-am-Inn

3. Insert Hitler Family tree

4. Reared Catholic Adolf (center) with schoolmates, 1900. St. Michael’s Catholic Church attended by Hitler as a child. Leonding, Austria

5. Who Was Hitler? • Born in Austria. • Reared Catholic. • Aspired to be an artist. Rejected by Vienna Academy of Arts on two occasions. Never attended college. • Exposed to antisemitic influences while in Vienna. • Moved to Germany to avoid Austrian draft. Fought for Germany in World War I.

6. Aspired to be an ArtistRejected by Vienna Academy of ArtsNever Attended College Oedensplatz (Feldherrnhalle), Munich, 1914 Artist: Adolf Hitler The Rotterdam Cathedral Munich, 1930 Artist: Adolf Hitler

7. Exposed to antisemitic influenceswhile in Vienna. Hitler’s description in Mein Kampf of how he had become an antisemite in Vienna: For me this was a time of the greatest spiritual upheaval I have ever had to go through. I had ceased to be a weak-kneed cosmopolitan and become an antisemite. Vienna, he said, had significantly contributed to his becoming antisemitic: At the time of this bitter struggle between spiritual education and cold reason, the visual instruction of the Vienna streets had performed invaluable services. Vienna Opera House by Adolf Hitler

8. Moved to Germany to avoid Austrian draft. Fought for Germany in World War I. Hitler served in the Bavarian contingent of the German Army.

9. Factors Contributingto the Rise of the Nazis • Treaty of Versailles • Economics • German Nationalism • Antisemitism All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke, British Philosopher, 1729-1797

10. Treaty of Versailles Europe after World War I European alliances on the eve of World War I After World War I, the need for security on the continent led France to support a buffer zone of new nations between Russia and Germany, carved out of the former Austrian Empire: Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were created. German territory along the French border was demilitarized out of the same concern for protection.

11. German territorial losses as dictated by the Treaty of Versailles.

12. Unemployment in Germany 1928-1933

13. Inflation in Germany

14. German children with stacks of inflated currency, virtually worthless in 1923.

15. Worldwide Depression, 1929 Bread lines for the unemployed in the U.S.

16. German Nationalism 1st Reich 800 - 1806 2nd Reich 1871 - 1918 3rd Reich 1933 - ? Charlemagne 800-814 His vast realm encompassed what are now France, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, half of present-day Italy and Germany, and parts of Austria and Spain. Otto von Bismarck 1871-1890 Engineered the unification of the numerous states of Germany. Adolf Hitler 1933 - 1945 Hitler promised to return Germany to its previous glory with an empire that would last 1000 years. In reality, the 3rd Reich lasted only 12 years.

17. Antisemitism Recognizing public support for his anti-Jewish comments, Hitler capitalized on these anti-Jewish feelings that had existed for centuries in the German population and offered the Jews as a scapegoat for the country’s current financial woes. He would claim that Germany had lost World War I because of the Jews, that democracy and communism were Jewish inventions, and that the Jews were engaged in a conspiracy for world domination. It was the Jews who controlled society and made Germans suffer. Antisemitic political cartoon entitled "Rothschild" by the French caricaturist, C. Leandre, 1898.

18. Hitler’s Rise to Power The world is too dangerous to live in – not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen. – Albert Einstein • Birth of the Nazi Party • The Weimar Republic • Beer Hall Putsch (November 8-9, 1923) • Nazis Become a Legitimate Party • Hitler Appointed Chancellor (January 30, 1933) • Reichstag Fire (February 27, 1933) • Emergency Decree (February 28, 1933) • Enabling Act (March 23, 1933) • Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934) • Hitler Becomes Führer (August 2, 1934)

19. Birth of the Nazi Party • In 1919 Hitler joined the fledgling “German Worker’s Party.” • In 1920 he took control of the group and changed the name to the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, NSDAP, or Nazi for short. • It was here that Hitler discovered two remarkable talents: public speaking and inspiring personal loyalty. German propaganda postcard showing an early Hitler preaching to the fledgling Nazi Party. Assembly of the Nazi Party, 1922, Coburg, Germany

20. The Weimar Republic ♦ How the New Government Was to Be Run ♦ PRESIDENT Publicly elected to 7-year term. CHANCELLOR Appointed by President REICHSTAG Unlimited number of political parties. Elected to 4-year term by proportional representation. (e.g., 10% of the vote equals 10% of the seats) 421 members (1919) 647 members (1932) CABINET

21. Beer Hall PutschNovember 8-9, 1923 Part of a photo-card collection used by the Nazis to indoctrinate German children. This beer hall was the scene of the failed Nazi Putsch. It symbolized the birth pangs of Nazi power. Munich, Germany, 1923, Masses in the streets during the Putsch.

22. Historical experience … shows with terrifying clarity that in every mingling of Aryan blood with that of lower peoples the result was the end of the cultured people. • Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live. • The [Nazi party] should not become a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master! • The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

24. Nazi propaganda poster illustrating the Nazi’s desire to break the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles.

25. The Nazi Party, political unknowns, promised the German people a solution to their hunger and poverty: Work & Bread. • After the Nazis came to power, public works programs similar to those initiated by FDR’s “New Deal” stimulated the German economy. • Prior to World War II, average Germans credited the Nazis with their improved standard of living. “Work and Bread!” Nazi Party election poster from the early 1930’s.

26. Hitler Appointed ChancellorJanuary 30, 1933 Newly appointed Chancellor Adolf Hitler shakes hands with German President Paul von Hindenburg. Adolf Hitler greets a crowd of enthusiastic Germans from a window in the Chancellery building on the day of his appointment. Hitler in Berlin as new Chancellor of Germany, January, 1933

27. Reichstag FireFebruary 27, 1933 Emergency Decree February 28, 1933 President Hindenburg was persuaded to issue an Emergency Decree invoking Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. This gave the Chancellor the authority to impose dictatorial power to protect the democratic order from being overthrown.Members of the Communist Party were arrested. The Nazis accused the Communists of the arson as well as attempting to overthrow the state. The Nazis would use this event to eliminate all political opposition.

28. Enabling ActMarch 23, 1933 • Hitler won the office of Chancellor in a legal fashion, but he was determined to rule Germany without the restraints of a democratically elected parliament. • The Enabling Act was a special power allowed by the Weimar Constitution that gave the Chancellor and his cabinet the power to pass laws by decree for a specified period of time, without Reichstag involvement. It was only to be used in times of emergency. • Because it altered the constitution, passing the Enabling Act required a 2/3 majority vote of the Reichstag. This was achieved by Nazi maneuvering. • The Enabling Act gave Hitler’s government dictatorial powers for four years. German Reichstag in session.

29. Night of the Long Knives“The Roehm Putsch”June 30, 1934 Ernst Roehm, Leader of the SA Political Cartoon by David Low, July 3, 1934

30. Hitler Becomes Führer August 2, 1934 With President Paul von Hindenburg's death, Hitler consolidated power by joining the offices of Chancellor and President. He assumed the title of Führer (leader) and Reich Chancellor of the German nation. Placing one hand upon the Nazi flag and raising the other in obedience, these German soldiers swear their allegiance to the Führer. "One People, One Empire, One Führer."

31. What the Nazis Believed Anyone who interprets National Socialism as merely a political movement knows almost nothing about it. It is more than a religion. It is the determination to create the new man. - Adolf Hitler • What the Nazis Believed • Racial Science • Nazi Platform • Symbols

32. What the Nazis Believed • The Nazis valued authority and order. • The Nazis valued emotion more than reason. • The Nazis valued the community rather than the individual. • The Nazis had a strong belief in the traditional family. • The Nazis were strong nationalists. • The Nazis saw politics as a religion. • The Nazis valued the concept of a select race.

33. “Second Creation” Theodor Seuss Geisel, April 3, 1942

34. Racial Science The law of existence requires uninterrupted killing, so that the better may live. – Adolf Hitler Nazi physicians conducted “bogus” medical research in an effort to identify physical evidence of Aryan superiority & non-Aryan inferiority. The Nazis could not find evidence for their theories of biological racial differences among human beings. This kit contains 29 hair samples used by doctors, anthropologists, and geneticists to determine racial makeup of individuals. Establishing racial descent by measuring an ear at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology. Caliper to measure skull width.

35. Nazi Platform We demand: 1. A union of Germans to form a great Germany. 2. Abolition of the Treaty of Versailles. 3. Lebensraum (living space) for Germans as well as surplus populations. 4. German blood as a requirement for citizenship. No Jew can be a citizen. 5. Non-citizens live in Germany as foreigners only, subject to the law of aliens. 6. Only citizens can vote or hold public office. 7. The state insures that every citizen live decently and earn his livelihood. 8. No further immigration of non-Germans. Any non-German who arrived after August 2, 1914, shall leave immediately. 9. Revision of the national system of education with citizenship being taught. 10. All newspapers must be published in the German language by German citizens.

36. Symbols

37. The Perpetrators History teaches us to beware of demagogues who wrap themselves in the flag in an attempt to appeal to the worst aspects of nationalism. - Alistair Nicholson Reinhard Heydrich Joseph Goebbels Hermann Goering Adolf Eichmann Rudolf Hess Heinrich Himmler

39. Nazi Intentions Revealed Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice? - Lillian Hellman • Anti-Jewish Policies • Boycott of Jewish Shops: April 1, 1933 • Nazi Book Burnings: May 10, 1933 • Nuremberg Laws: September 15, 1935 • The November Decree: November 14, 1935

40. Anti-Jewish Policies How can such a monstrous crime as the Holocaust occur? It begins when people start thinking of themselves as ‘us’ and of others as ‘them’. - Ted Gottfried, Deniers of the Holocaust Goals: • social death of Jews • removal of Jewish presence/influence from German society Means of Accomplishment: • verbal assaults • physical assaults • legal/administrative restrictions

41. Laws Restricting Civil Rights The Law for the Protection of German Blood & German Honor forbade either marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germans.

42. Laws Restricting Personal Rights Sign on a phone booth in Munich prohibiting Jews from using the public telephone. Jews were only permitted to purchase products between 3-5 p.m. This was one step in the overall Nazi scheme of eliminating Jews from economic, social and cultural life. Bench with inscription “Only for Jews.” Sign forbidding Jews in public pool.

43. Jews are forced to walk in the street. The original photo caption read, "Jews in gutter." Belgium, 1943

44. October 5, 1938 All Jewish passports must be marked with the letter "J“ for Jew.

45. Laws Restricting Education Political Cartoon from Der Stürmer entitled: “Away with Him” The long arm of the Ministry of Education pulls a Jewish teacher from his classroom. March 1933.

46. Laws Restricting Occupation With the rise of Nazism, nothing the Jews had done for their country made any difference… - Alfred Gottschalk, Jewish Survivor Erich Remarque, author. Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst, Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winner. Otto Klemperer, conductor.

47. Laws Restricting Private Property and Business "Aryanization" announcements in a newspaper.

48. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, “regretted,” that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these “little measures” that no “patriotic German” could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head. Heinrich Hildebrandt, non-Jewish German high school teacher during the Nazi years, interviewed in 1952. They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer

49. Boycott of Jewish ShopsApril 1, 1933 SA soldiers stood at the entrances to Jewish shops and professional offices discouraging non-Jewish patrons from entering. Signs were posted warning: “Germans! Beware! Don’t Buy from Jews!”

50. Nazi Book Burnings May 10, 1933 Where books are burned, in the end, people will be burned. - Heinrich Heine (19th century German poet) Uniformed Nazi party officials carrying confiscated books. Hamburg, Germany, The public burning of "un-German" books by members of the SA and university students.