Adolf Hitler

By C. Moreno

Holocaust. What does that mean to you? To me it means pain, death, and Adolf Hitler. He killed thousands of people just because he hated them. He put them in concentration camps and tortured them so much that up to this day many Jews are still afraid to let other people know their beliefs because they are afraid of getting killed. In addition, Hitler tried to take over the world and World War II began because of him.

Adolf Hitler was born, April 20, 1889 in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. His father Alois worked as a custom officer and his mother’s name was Klara. Adolf started school at the age of 6 and he had a little brother that died at the age of six. In 1896 his mom gave birth to his sister who was named Paula. Six years after this when Adolf was 13 his dad died and his mom took care of him and his sister until he turned 19 when Klara died of cancer. Thus, his childhood was filled with tragedy.

In 1907, Adolf went to Vienna, Austria where he failed the entrance exam to the Academy of
Fine Arts. He took the test a year later and failed the test again. Disappointed he soon became homeless and would often get meals from charity kitchens. In 1913 he went to Munich, Germany and in 1914 volunteered for the German Army during World War I. He was decorated for bravery twice and at the end of the war he had to recover from temporary blindness caused by a poison gas attack.

In 1920 Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers Party which was known as the “Nazis”. He soon became leader and organized an army for the Nazi Party called the Storm Troopers. On 1923 he led more than 2,000 Storm Troopers to seize the Bavarian government, the attempt failed and Hitler was sentenced to prison for 5 years but he only served 9 months and was released. By 1929 Nazis had become an important political party.

Adolf became a German citizen on February 25, 1932. The Nazi Party won the July elections and on 1934 Hitler became the “Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor”. On March 7, 1936 German troops marched into the demilitarized areas of Germany towards Aachen, Trier and Saarburuecken. He then took over Austria, Czecoslovakia, Poland, France and England then followed by declaring war on Germany. Then he took over Denmark and Norway. On June 22, 1941, Hitler advanced on Russia and this was his eventual downfall.

In the last days of the Third Reich, the Russians troops were inside of Berlin. Just what really happened to Adolf Hitler from here is a matter of opinion. It was said that he committed suicide on April 30, 1945. His companion, Eva Braun, is thought to have killed herself with cyanide. It is then thought that the bodies were burned with petrol, then buried in a shallow grave, but many believe this was a ploy and that he escaped.

But Russia, has another scenario. When Russian troops entered Berlin in 1945, they dug up the remains. They then reburied Hitler in Magdeburg, East Germany. Yuri Andropov ordered the bones dug up and destroyed in 1970. However, the KGB found skull fragments in the bunker of Hitler and took them to Moscow. Moscow first announced it had the fragment in 1993.