Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919. This treaty held Germany solely responsible for the causes of the World War and for all outstanding costs resulting from the conflict. Germany lost great amounts of territory and its colonies because of this treaty. Alsace-Lorraine now belonged to France, Belgium received the Malmedy area and the majority of Posen and West Prussia went to Poland. “The Allies occupied the Rhineland, Danzig was made a free state and on the right bank of the Rhine where a huge belt existed, also occupied by the Allies, was to be demilitarized.”(Toland, 1976, p.82) All Germans were forbidden to have any military aircrafts or submarines. This limited the German army to 100,000 men. In early autumn, 1919, after this force, Hitler attended a meeting with a small nationalist or political group that called itself the German Workers’ Party. This party was made up of a “combination of nationalism, socialism, and anti-Semitism”(Toland, 1976, p. 85). Hitler observed a couple of these meetings and was invited to join as a member of this group when a postcard was sent to his surprise by the leader of the party. Hitler was requested to attend to the next meeting the following week. No intentions were held by Hitler to actually join the German Workers’ Party for reasons that he wanted to create his own party, not join a “ready-made party”(Toland, 1976, p.87). Hitler did however make and appearance at the requested meeting and was still “undecided whether to join or not”(Toland, 1976, p.87) at the end of the evening. Hitler wanted to join into politics although it was against the law for new members of the army to join any political party’s. Two days after the last meeting that Hitler attended to, he decided that there were advantages for him if he accepted this offer in joining the party, but, he had not yet confirmed his decision with the leader of the party. General Ludendorff requested Hitler to join the party to help build it up. After this request it was made an order for Hitler to join, a decision that Hitler had already made anyways. Hitler was now registered and held a membership card for the organization.
With the German society surrounded with debate, Hitler’s first assignment as a member of the Workers’ Party, was to transform the society into a political organization. Hitler convinced the party of 7 members to hold bigger meetings in an aim to create a larger, more powerful party. A public meeting was advertised , invitations were written by Hitler and sent out to the public in an attempt for a mass meeting to increase the membership number. It took a few tries along with changing tactics and approaches on the invitations before the member number began to rise. On November 13, 1919, a mass meeting of 130 men was held at a beer hall called Eberlbrau. It was the first time in local politics that an admission fee was present for a meeting. Each person attending paid fifty pfennigs instead of common donations to hear four people speak. By the early 1920’s, the transformation of the German society was succeeded with a new party name that Hitler had titled the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartel) also known as the NSDAP or the NAZI Party. This was the birth of a new party and a new leader. A new bright red symbol on a flag called the swastika, meaning, “all is all”(Toland, 1976, p.105), “the wheel of the sun or the cycle of life”(Toland, 1976, p.105).
On January 22, 1921 was the first national congress meeting for the Nazi Party in Munich, Germany. By January of the following year, the Nazi’s had become a respected force in Bavarian right-wing politics. This mainly happened because of Hitler’s “obsessive drive and magnetic personality”(Toland, 1976, p.108). He prepared his speeches well, knew how to speak to the people and knew what to say to get their attention and support. Hitler had achieved a fair amount by this time. Before the end of 1921, Hitler concluded that force was the key to success if it was unafraid by the people to apply it. However, a lot of force would be used in a racist manner that aimed mainly at the Jewish people.
Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews began on the streets in Munich when he had first moved there in 1913. The Jews were in power everywhere that Hitler looked. Hitler figured that if the Jews were gone, Germany would be a much stronger country. He saw it in the perspective that Germany had won the World War because it was freeing itself of the Jewish race. Hitler made the people of Germany believe that getting rid of the Jews and was the only way to save Germany. He made them believe that they all had to join his crusade in order to do this. He had also mentioned to the citizens that France had to be driven out of the Ruhr to help save the country. In 1923, there were approximately 15,000 members, many machine guns and rifles in an army that was created by Hitler named the Social Democrats, the S.A. France and Belgium sent troops to occupy the Ruhr district which was the chief industrial region. This was the beginning of the Beer Hall Putsch.
German workers’ went on strike after the France/Belgium occupation took place. German money lost a lot of it’s value which, in turn, added to the weaknesses of the German economy. There were revolts throughout Germany involving communists and nationalists. Bavaria was in conflict with the central government in Berlin and this is when Hitler had the opportunity to overthrow the Bavarian and German governments. A stronger army called the Schwtzstaffel, the S.S. was created as the S.A. veered off on its own. This was an elite party guard when the Great Depression came into effect in 1930. Germany was faced with hunger and unemployment once again. The Nazi Party became Germany’s strongest party in 1932, Hitler as the leader. He refused all agreements that would not make him Chancellor of Germany. Hitler was given the title of the Chancellor in 1933. He would have never become Chancellor if it wasn’t for the “support of industrialists and the military.”(Toland, 1976, p.294) Adolf Hitler had finally seized the power that he had been striving for.
Hitler began to prepare for war as soon as he was in power. He violated the Treaty of Versailles in order for him to rearm Germany. He sent troops to the Rhineland in 1936 knowing that France would not stop him. This was the first victory without war. Austria was the next plan on Hitler’s list to conquer. In 1938, Austria was conquered and was the second victory for Germany. Czechoslovakia followed and was ruled by Germany in 1939. Next on the list for expansion was Poland which was not succeeded. As soon as Germany tried to invade, Britain and France declared war to stop the expansion of Germany. Mid 1939 was the beginning of World War Two. Many other places were conquered with ease at the beginning of the war. A mass murder was set up by Hitler in 1941 which was the beginning of the destruction of the Jews.
After the war had started, Hitler decided it would be the perfect time to get rid of all the Jews. His first attempt to do this was by shipping them all to an isolated island and to let them fend for themselves. This attempt showed a negative outcome. The next preparation made by Hitler to rid the Jews was, what is now known as, the “Final Solution”. “An institution of genocidal killing is any institution that was part of the system of destruction.” (Goldhagen, 1997, p.165) This final solution meant that it was the end of Jewry. They would all be dead and Germany would finally be freed from all of the Jews. Experiments were conducted on the Jews to try to hide anything that might look like a murder. After this, there were concentration camps set up to kill the Jewish people faster. These killing factories deceased more than 6 million Jews by the end of the war. There were six killing factories in total which were located in #1. Treblinka, #2. Chelmno, #3. Majdanen, #4. Sobibor, #5. Belzec, and #6. Auschwitz Birkenau. The Jews were stripped of their clothing and made to believe that they were taking a shower to be cleaned. When they entered into the factories, that were set up inside to look like a room for showering, the Jews were all gassed to their deaths. Piles and piles of dead bodies were burned inside different sections of the factories until there were too many bodies to store. Pits were made to toss the bodies into to burn outside. This was done to destroy any evidence of murder and the factories were destroyed for the same reasons after the war. Germany surrendered in 1945. Hitler committed suicide with his wife Eva Braun seven days before Germany surrendered. That was the end of Hitler, the war and the holocaust.
Today, evidence of the killing factories are still present in Germany and are viewed by many people each day. It has been said that where the killings took place, there are no birds, no signs of life in those areas likely because so much death still lingers in the air. From the beginning of Hitler’s entry into the military to the very end contributed greatly to what one might call his successes and also to his failures. He succeeded in rebuilding the German empire whether or not it was done with respect for all people. You can look at Hitler’s victories and call it success or you can look at his approaches to achieve these victories and call it failure. In all that Hitler did throughout his rise to power and the war, the conclusion stands that all his actions contributed to all the successes and failures for Germany and for the world that we live in today.
Bibliography
1. Rees, Laurence, Professor Kershaw, Ian, Siebert, Detlef, Remme,Tilman, The Nazis: The Road to Treblinka, The History Channel, (BBC) British Broadcasting Corporation (1997), A&E Television Networks, V. #5.
2. Rees, Laurence, Professor Kershaw, Ian, Siebert, Detlef, Remme,Tilman, The Nazis: Fighting to the End, The History Channel, (BBC) British Broadcasting Corporation (1997), A&E Television Networks, V. #6.
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4. Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary _ Germans and the Holocaust, (New York, 1997)
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