Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kierzek (talk | contribs) at 19:55, 7 September 2015 (Undid revision 679946957 by Alumnum (talk) rv good faith edit, trivial pursuant and not what he was known for, career wise). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Adolf Hitler
Hitler in 1938
Führer of Germany
In office 2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945
Deputy	Rudolf Hess (1933–41) Position vacant
Preceded by	Paul von Hindenburg (as President)
Succeeded by	Karl Dönitz (as President)
Reich Chancellor of Germany
In office 30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
President	Paul von Hindenburg (until 1934)
Deputy	Franz von Papen (1933–34) Position vacant
Preceded by	Kurt von Schleicher
Succeeded by	Joseph Goebbels
Leader of the Nazi Party
In office 29 June 1921 – 30 April 1945
Deputy	Rudolf Hess
Preceded by	Anton Drexler
Succeeded by	Martin Bormann
Personal details
Born	(1889-04-20)20 April 1889 Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary
Died	30 April 1945(1945-04-30) (aged 56) Berlin, Germany
Cause of death	Suicide
Nationality	Austrian citizen until 7 April 1925 German citizen after 25 February 1932
Political party	National Socialist German Workers' Party (1921–45)
Other political affiliations	German Workers' Party (1920–21)
Spouse(s)	Eva Braun (29–30 April 1945)
Parents	Alois Hitler (father) Klara Pölzl (mother)
Occupation	Politician
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Branch/service	Bavarian Army
Years of service	1914–20
Rank	Gefreiter Verbindungsmann
Unit	16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment Reichswehr intelligence
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross First Class Iron Cross Second Class Wound Badge

Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party (Template:Lang-de (NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer ("leader") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As effective dictator of Nazi Germany, Hitler was at the centre of World War II in Europe and the Holocaust.

Hitler was a decorated veteran of World War I. He joined the precursor of the NSDAP, the German Workers' Party, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy.

Hitler's Nazi Party became the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, leading to his appointment as chancellor in 1933. Following fresh elections won by his coalition, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the denunciation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories that were home to millions of ethnic Germans—actions which gave him significant popular support.

Hitler sought Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the primary cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British and French declarations of war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, Eva Braun. On 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned.

Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen ("sub-humans") and socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, and constitutes the deadliest conflict in human history.

Early years

Ancestry

Hitler's father Alois Hitler, Sr. (1837–1903) was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother's surname Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother Maria Anna. She died in 1847 and Johann Georg Hiedler died in 1856. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as Georg Hitler). Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled as Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler. The Hitler surname is probably based on "one who lives in a hut" (Standard German Hütte for hut) or on "shepherd" (Standard German hüten for to guard); alternatively, it might be derived from the Slavic words Hidlar or Hidlarcek (small cottager or small holder).

Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper for a Jewish family in Graz, and that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence, so historians dismiss the claim that Alois's father was Jewish.

Childhood and education

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire. He was the fourth of six children to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl (1860–1907). Hitler's older siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy. When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life. In 1894 the family relocated to Leonding (near Linz), and in June 1895, Alois retired to a small landholding at Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-owned school) in nearby Fischlham.

The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school. Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest. In 1898 the family returned permanently to Leonding. The death of his younger brother Edmund, who died from measles in 1900, deeply affected Hitler. He changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached, sullen boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers.

Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed. Ignoring his son's desire to attend a classical high school and become an artist, Alois sent Hitler to the Realschule in Linz in September 1900. Hitler rebelled against this decision, and in Mein Kampf revealed that he intentionally did poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to my dream".

Like many Austrian Germans, Hitler began to develop German nationalist ideas from a young age. He expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over an ethnically variegated empire. Hitler and his friends used the greeting "Heil", and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.

After Alois's sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to leave. He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and performance showed some improvement. In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career.

Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich

From 1905, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He worked as a casual labourer and eventually as a painter, selling watercolours of Vienna's sights. Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts rejected him in 1907 and again in 1908, citing "unfitness for painting". The director, sympathetic to his situation, recommended that Hitler study architecture, which was also an interest, but he lacked academic credentials as he had not finished secondary school. On 21 December 1907, his mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47. After the academy's second rejection, Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live in homeless shelters and men's hostels. At the time Hitler lived there, Vienna was a hotbed of religious prejudice and racism. Fears of being overrun by immigrants from the East were widespread, and the populist mayor, Karl Lueger, exploited the rhetoric of virulent anti-Semitism for political effect. German nationalism had a widespread following in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived. German nationalist Georg Ritter von Schönerer, who advocated Pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism, anti-Slavism, and anti-Catholicism, was one influence on Hitler. Hitler read local newspapers, such as the Deutsches Volksblatt, that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of eastern Jews. Hostile to what he saw as "Catholic Germanophobia", he developed an admiration for Martin Luther.

The origin and first expression of Hitler's anti-Semitism remain a matter of debate. Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna. His close friend, August Kubizek, claimed that Hitler was a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz. Several sources provide strong evidence that Hitler had Jewish friends in his hostel and in other places in Vienna. Historian Richard J. Evans states that "historians now generally agree that his notorious, murderous anti-Semitism emerged well after Germany's defeat , as a product of the paranoid "stab-in-the-back" explanation for the catastrophe".

Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich. Historians believe he left Vienna to evade conscription into the Austrian army. Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Austro-Hungarian Empire because of the mixture of races in its army. After he was deemed unfit for service—he failed his physical exam in Salzburg on 5 February 1914—he returned to Munich.

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and volunteered to serve in the Bavarian Army as an Austrian citizen. Posted to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment), he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium, spending nearly half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-Weppes, well behind the front lines. He was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, and was wounded at the Somme. He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914. On a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, Hitler's Jewish superior, he received the Iron Cross, First Class on 4 August 1918, a decoration rarely awarded to one of Hitler's Gefreiter rank. He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.

During his service at headquarters, Hitler pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons and instructions for an army newspaper. During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout. Hitler spent almost two months in hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917. On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was hospitalised in Pasewalk. While there, Hitler learnt of Germany's defeat, and—by his own account—upon receiving this news, he suffered a second bout of blindness.

Hitler described the war as "the greatest of all experiences", and was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery. His wartime experience reinforced his German patriotism and he was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918. His bitterness over the collapse of the war effort began to shape his ideology. Like other German nationalists, he believed the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which claimed that the German army, "undefeated in the field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by civilian leaders and Marxists, later dubbed the "November criminals".

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany must relinquish several of its territories and demilitarise the Rhineland. The treaty imposed economic sanctions and levied heavy reparations on the country. Many Germans perceived the treaty—especially Article 231, which declared Germany responsible for the war—as an unjust humiliation. The Versailles Treaty and the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were later exploited by Hitler for political gain.

Entry into politics

After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich. With no formal education or career prospects, he remained in the army. In July 1919 he was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance commando) of the Reichswehr, assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). While monitoring the activities of the DAP, Hitler was attracted to the founder Anton Drexler's anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas. Drexler favoured a strong active government, a non-Jewish version of socialism, and solidarity among all members of society. Impressed with Hitler's oratorical skills, Drexler invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919, becoming party member 555 (the party began counting membership at 500 to give the impression they were a much larger party than they actually were).

At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the party's founders and a member of the occult Thule Society. Eckart became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him to a wide range of Munich society. To increase its appeal, the DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party; NSDAP). Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.

Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the NSDAP. The party headquarters was in Munich, a major hotbed of anti-government German nationalists determined to crush Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic. In February 1921—already highly effective at speaking to large audiences—he spoke to a crowd of over 6,000. To publicise the meeting, two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags and throwing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.

In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the NSDAP in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP). Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich. The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Even then, Hitler still faced some opposition within the NSDAP: Opponents of Hitler in the leadership had Hermann Esser expelled from the party and printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party. In the following days, Hitler spoke to several packed houses and defended himself and Esser, to thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful, and at a general membership meeting, he was granted absolute powers as party chairman, with only one vote against.

Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. He became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships. Psychiatrist Carl Jung commented in 1938 that Hitler is the "first man to tell every German what he has been thinking and feeling all along in his unconscious about German fate, especially since the defeat in the World War". Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to advantage while engaged in public speaking. Historians have noted the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups. The author Alfons Heck, a former member of the Hitler Youth, describes the reaction to a speech by Hitler:

We erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic pride that bordered on hysteria. For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil! From that moment on, I belonged to Adolf Hitler body and soul.

— Alfons Heck

Although Hitler's oratory skills and personal traits were generally received well by large crowds and at official events, some who met Hitler privately noted that his appearance and demeanour failed to make a lasting impression.

Early followers included Rudolf Hess, former air force ace Hermann Göring, and army captain Ernst Röhm. Röhm became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Stormtroopers"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. A critical influence on his thinking during this period was the Aufbau Vereinigung, a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early National Socialists. The group, financed with funds channelled from wealthy industrialists, introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy, linking international finance with Bolshevism.

Beer Hall Putsch

In 1923 Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known as the "Beer Hall Putsch". The NSDAP used Italian Fascism as a model for their appearance and policies. Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" of 1922 by staging his own coup in Bavaria, to be followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin. Hitler and Ludendorff sought the support of Staatskommissar (state commissioner) Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Bavaria's de facto ruler. However, Kahr, along with Police Chief Hans Ritter von Seisser and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow, wanted to install a nationalist dictatorship without Hitler.

On 8 November 1923 Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr's speech, he announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff. Retiring to a back room, Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow. Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly withdrew their support. Neither the army nor the state police joined forces with Hitler. The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but police dispersed them. Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup.

Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide. He was depressed but calm when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason. His trial before the special People's Court in Munich began in February 1924, and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the NSDAP. On 1 April, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison. There, he received friendly treatment from the guards, and he was allowed mail from supporters and regular visits by party comrades. Pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court, he was released from jail on 20 December 1924, against the state prosecutor's objections. Including time on remand, Hitler served just over one year in prison.

While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle; originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) to his deputy, Rudolf Hess. The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. The book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Some passages implied genocide. Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.

Rebuilding the NSDAP

At the time of Hitler's release from prison, politics in Germany had become less combative and the economy had improved, limiting Hitler's opportunities for political agitation. As a result of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, the NSDAP and its affiliated organisations were banned in Bavaria. In a meeting with Prime Minister of Bavaria Heinrich Held on 4 January 1925, Hitler agreed to respect the authority of the state and promised that he would seek political power only through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted on 16 February. Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927. To advance his political ambitions in spite of the ban, Hitler appointed Gregor Strasser, Otto Strasser, and Joseph Goebbels to organise and grow the NSDAP in northern Germany. A superb organiser, Gregor Strasser steered a more independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the party's programme.

The stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929. The impact in Germany was dire: millions were thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and provide jobs.

Rise to power

Brüning administration

The Great Depression provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent to the parliamentary republic, which faced strong challenges from right- and left-wing extremists. The moderate political parties were increasingly unable to stem the tide of extremism, and the German referendum of 1929 helped to elevate Nazi ideology. The elections of September 1930 resulted in the break-up of a grand coalition and its replacement with a minority cabinet. Its leader, chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Centre Party, governed through emergency decrees from President Paul von Hindenburg. Governance by decree would become the new norm and paved the way for authoritarian forms of government. The NSDAP rose from obscurity to win 18.3 per cent of the vote and 107 parliamentary seats in the 1930 election, becoming the second-largest party in parliament.

Hitler made a prominent appearance at the trial of two Reichswehr officers, Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hans Ludin, in late 1930. Both were charged with membership in the NSDAP, at that time illegal for Reichswehr personnel. The prosecution argued that the NSDAP was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify. On 25 September 1930, Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections, which won him many supporters in the officer corps.

Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular. Hitler exploited this by targeting his political messages specifically at people who had been affected by the inflation of the 1920s and the Depression, such as farmers, war veterans, and the middle class.

Hitler had formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925, but at the time did not acquire German citizenship. For almost seven years he was stateless, unable to run for public office, and facing the risk of deportation. On 25 February 1932, the interior minister of Brunswick, Dietrich Klagges, who was a member of the NSDAP, appointed Hitler as administrator for the state's delegation to the Reichsrat in Berlin, making Hitler a citizen of Brunswick, and thus of Germany.

In 1932, Hitler ran against Hindenburg in the presidential elections. The viability of his candidacy was underscored by a 27 January 1932 speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf, which won him support from many of Germany's most powerful industrialists. Hindenburg had support from various nationalist, monarchist, Catholic, and republican parties, and some Social Democrats. Hitler used the campaign slogan "Hitler über Deutschland" ("Hitler over Germany"), a reference to his political ambitions and his campaigning by aircraft. He was one of the first politicians to use aircraft travel for political purposes, and utilised it effectively. Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 35 per cent of the vote in the final election. Although he lost to Hindenburg, this election established Hitler as a strong force in German politics.

Appointment as chancellor

The absence of an effective government prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other industrialists and businessmen, to write a letter to Hindenburg. The signers urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people".

Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary elections—in July and November 1932—had not resulted in the formation of a majority government. Hitler headed a short-lived coalition government formed by the NSDAP and Hugenberg's party, the German National People's Party (DNVP). On 30 January 1933, the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The NSDAP gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Göring Minister of the Interior for Prussia. Hitler had insisted on the ministerial positions as a way to gain control over the police in much of Germany.

Reichstag fire and March elections

As chancellor, Hitler worked against attempts by the NSDAP's opponents to build a majority government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Göring blamed a communist plot, because Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building. According to the British historian Sir Ian Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all historians is that van der Lubbe actually set the fire. Others, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the NSDAP itself was responsible. At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded with the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. The decree was permitted under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which gave the president the power to take emergency measures to protect public safety and order. Activities of the German Communist Party were suppressed, and some 4,000 communist party members were arrested.

In addition to political campaigning, the NSDAP engaged in paramilitary violence and the spread of anti-communist propaganda in the days preceding the election. On election day, 6 March 1933, the NSDAP's share of the vote increased to 43.9 per cent, and the party acquired the largest number of seats in parliament. Hitler's party failed to secure an absolute majority, necessitating another coalition with the DNVP.

Day of Potsdam and the Enabling Act

On 21 March 1933, the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony at the Garrison Church in Potsdam. This "Day of Potsdam" was held to demonstrate unity between the Nazi movement and the old Prussian elite and military. Hitler appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted Hindenburg.

To achieve full political control despite not having an absolute majority in parliament, Hitler's government brought the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) to a vote in the newly elected Reichstag. The Act—officially titled the Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich")—gave Hitler's cabinet the power to enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag for four years. These laws could (with certain exceptions) deviate from the constitution. Since it would affect the constitution, the Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority to pass. Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to prevent several Social Democratic deputies from attending; the Communists having already been banned.

On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag assembled at the Kroll Opera House under turbulent circumstances. Ranks of SA men served as guards inside the building, while large groups outside opposing the proposed legislation shouted slogans and threats towards the arriving members of parliament. The position of the Centre Party, the third largest party in the Reichstag, was decisive. After Hitler verbally promised party leader Ludwig Kaas that Hindenburg would retain his power of veto, Kaas announced the Centre Party would support the Enabling Act. The Act passed by a vote of 441–84, with all parties except the Social Democrats voting in favour. The Enabling Act, along with the Reichstag Fire Decree, transformed Hitler's government into a de facto legal dictatorship.

Removal of remaining limits

At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! ... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!

— Adolf Hitler to a British correspondent in Berlin, June 1934

Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his allies began to suppress the remaining opposition. The Social Democratic Party was banned and its assets seized. While many trade union delegates were in Berlin for May Day activities, SA stormtroopers demolished union offices around the country. On 2 May 1933 all trade unions were forced to dissolve and their leaders were arrested. Some were sent to concentration camps. The German Labour Front was formed as an umbrella organisation to represent all workers, administrators, and company owners, thus reflecting the concept of national socialism in the spirit of Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community").

By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. This included the Nazis' nominal coalition partner, the DNVP; with the SA's help, Hitler forced its leader, Hugenberg, to resign on 29 June. On 14 July 1933, the NSDAP was declared the only legal political party in Germany, although the country had effectively been a one-party state since the passage of the Enabling Act four months earlier. The demands of the SA for more political and military power caused anxiety among military, industrial, and political leaders. In response, Hitler purged the entire SA leadership in the Night of the Long Knives, which took place from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Hitler targeted Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders who, along with a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as Gregor Strasser and former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher), were rounded up, arrested, and shot. While the international community and some Germans were shocked by the murders, many in Germany believed Hitler was restoring order.

On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich". This law stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). This law violated the Enabling Act; although it allowed Hitler to deviate from the constitution, the Act explicitly barred him from passing any law tampering with the presidency. In 1932, the constitution had been amended to make the president of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, acting president pending new elections. Nonetheless, no one objected. With this action, Hitler eliminated the last legal remedy by which he could be removed from office.

As head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces. The traditional loyalty oath of servicemen was altered to affirm loyalty to Hitler personally, by name, rather than to the office of supreme commander or the state. On 19 August, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 90 per cent of the electorate voting in a plebiscite.

In early 1938, Hitler used blackmail to consolidate his hold over the military by instigating the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair. Hitler forced his War Minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, to resign by using a police dossier that showed that Blomberg's new wife had a record for prostitution. Army commander Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch was removed after the Schutzstaffel (SS) produced allegations that he had engaged in a homosexual relationship. Both men had fallen into disfavour because they objected to Hitler's demand to make the Wehrmacht ready for war as early as 1938. Hitler assumed Blomberg's title of Commander-in-Chief, thus taking personal command of the armed forces. He replaced the Ministry of War with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command, or OKW), headed by General Wilhelm Keitel. On the same day, sixteen generals were stripped of their commands and 44 more were transferred; all were suspected of not being sufficiently pro-Nazi. By early February 1938, twelve more generals had been removed.

Hitler took care to give his dictatorship the appearance of legality. Many of his decrees were explicitly based on the Reichstag Fire Decree and hence on Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The Reichstag renewed the Enabling Act twice, each time for a four-year period. While elections to the Reichstag were still held, voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi "guests" which carried with well over 90 percent of the vote.

Third Reich

Economy and culture

In August 1934, Hitler appointed Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics, and in the following year, as Plenipotentiary for War Economy in charge of preparing the economy for war. Reconstruction and rearmament were financed through Mefo bills, printing money, and seizing the assets of people arrested as enemies of the State, including Jews. Unemployment fell from six million in 1932 to one million in 1936. Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, leading to the construction of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Wages were slightly lower in the mid to late 1930s compared with wages during the Weimar Republic, while the cost of living increased by 25 per cent. The average working week increased during the shift to a war economy; by 1939, the average German was working between 47 and 50 hours a week.

Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale. Albert Speer, instrumental in implementing Hitler's classicist reinterpretation of German culture, was placed in charge of the proposed architectural renovations of Berlin. In 1936, Hitler opened the summer Olympic games in Berlin.

Rearmament and new alliances

In a meeting with German military leaders on 3 February 1933, Hitler spoke of "conquest for Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy objectives. In March, Prince Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow, secretary at the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), issued a statement of major foreign policy aims: Anschluss with Austria, the restoration of Germany's national borders of 1914, rejection of military restrictions under the Treaty of Versailles, the return of the former German colonies in Africa, and a German zone of influence in Eastern Europe. Hitler found Bülow's goals to be too modest. In speeches during this period, he stressed the peaceful goals of his policies and a willingness to work within international agreements. At the first meeting of his cabinet in 1933, Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief.

Germany withdrew from the League of Nations and the World Disarmament Conference in October 1933. In January 1935, over 90 per cent of the people of the Saarland, then under League of Nations administration, voted to unite with Germany. That March, Hitler announced an expansion of the Wehrmacht to 600,000 members—six times the number permitted by the Versailles Treaty—including development of an air force (Luftwaffe) and an increase in the size of the navy (Kriegsmarine). Britain, France, Italy, and the League of Nations condemned these violations of the Treaty, but did virtually nothing to stop it. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June allowed German tonnage to increase to 35 per cent of that of the British navy. Hitler called the signing of the AGNA "the happiest day of his life", believing that the agreement marked the beginning of the Anglo-German alliance he had predicted in Mein Kampf. France and Italy were not consulted before the signing, directly undermining the League of Nations and setting the Treaty of Versailles on the path towards irrelevance.

Germany reoccupied the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland in March 1936, in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler also sent troops to Spain to support General Franco after receiving an appeal for help in July 1936. At the same time, Hitler continued his efforts to create an Anglo-German alliance. In August 1936, in response to a growing economic crisis caused by his rearmament efforts, Hitler ordered Göring to implement a Four Year Plan to prepare Germany for war within the next four years. The plan envisaged an all-out struggle between "Judeo-Bolshevism" and German national socialism, which in Hitler's view required a committed effort of rearmament regardless of the economic costs.

Count Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Mussolini's government, declared an axis between Germany and Italy, and on 25 November, Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. Britain, China, Italy, and Poland were also invited to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, but only Italy signed in 1937. Hitler abandoned his plan of an Anglo-German alliance, blaming "inadequate" British leadership. At a meeting in the Reich Chancellery with his foreign ministers and military chiefs that November, Hitler restated his intention of acquiring Lebensraum for the German people. He ordered preparations for war in the East, to begin as early as 1938 and no later than 1943. In the event of his death, the conference minutes, recorded as the Hossbach Memorandum, were to be regarded as his "political testament". He felt that a severe decline in living standards in Germany as a result of the economic crisis could only be stopped by military aggression aimed at seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia. Hitler urged quick action before Britain and France gained a permanent lead in the arms race. In early 1938, in the wake of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, Hitler asserted control of the military-foreign policy apparatus, dismissing Neurath as foreign minister and appointing himself Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (supreme commander of the armed forces). From early 1938 onwards, Hitler was carrying out a foreign policy ultimately aimed at war.

World War II

Early diplomatic successes

Alliance with Japan

In February 1938, on the advice of his newly appointed foreign minister, the strongly pro-Japanese Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler ended the Sino-German alliance with the Republic of China to instead enter into an alliance with the more modern and powerful Japan. Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied state in Manchuria, and renounced German claims to their former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan. Hitler ordered an end to arms shipments to China and recalled all German officers working with the Chinese Army. In retaliation, Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek cancelled all Sino-German economic agreements, depriving the Germans of many Chinese raw materials.

Austria and Czechoslovakia

On 12 March 1938, Hitler declared unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss. Hitler then turned his attention to the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

On 28–29 March 1938, Hitler held a series of secret meetings in Berlin with Konrad Henlein of the Sudeten Heimfront (Home Front), the largest of the ethnic German parties of the Sudetenland. The men agreed that Henlein would demand increased autonomy for Sudeten Germans from the Czechoslovakian government, thus providing a pretext for German military action against Czechoslovakia. In April 1938 Henlein told the foreign minister of Hungary that "whatever the Czech government might offer, he would always raise still higher demands ... he wanted to sabotage an understanding by any means because this was the only method to blow up Czechoslovakia quickly". In private, Hitler considered the Sudeten issue unimportant; his real intention was a war of conquest against Czechoslovakia.

In April Hitler ordered the OKW to prepare for Fall Grün ("Case Green"), the code name for an invasion of Czechoslovakia. As a result of intense French and British diplomatic pressure, on 5 September Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš unveiled the "Fourth Plan" for constitutional reorganisation of his country, which agreed to most of Henlein's demands for Sudeten autonomy. Henlein's Heimfront responded to Beneš' offer by instigating a series of violent clashes with the Czechoslovakian police that led to the declaration of martial law in certain Sudeten districts.

Germany was dependent on imported oil; a confrontation with Britain over the Czechoslovakian dispute could curtail Germany's oil supplies. This forced Hitler to call off Fall Grün, originally planned for 1 October 1938. On 29 September Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, and Mussolini attended a one-day conference in Munich that led to the Munich Agreement, which handed over the Sudetenland districts to Germany.

Chamberlain was satisfied with the Munich conference, calling the outcome "peace for our time", while Hitler was angered about the missed opportunity for war in 1938; he expressed his disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrücken. In Hitler's view, the British-brokered peace, although favourable to the ostensible German demands, was a diplomatic defeat which spurred his intent of limiting British power to pave the way for the eastern expansion of Germany. As a result of the summit, Hitler was selected Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.

In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Hitler to make major defence cuts. In his "Export or die" speech of 30 January 1939, he called for an economic offensive to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials such as high-grade iron needed for military weapons.

On 15 March 1939, in violation of the Munich accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Prague, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.

Start of World War II

In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal. The eastern flank would be secured and land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum. Offended by the British "guarantee" on 31 March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I shall brew them a devil's drink". In a speech in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz on 1 April, he threatened to denounce the Anglo-German Naval Agreement if the British continued to guarantee Polish independence, which he perceived as an "encirclement" policy. Poland was to either become a German satellite state or be neutralised to secure the Reich's eastern flank and to prevent a possible British blockade. Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy goal of 1939. On 3 April, Hitler ordered the military to prepare for Fall Weiss ("Case White"), the plan for invading Poland on 25 August. In a Reichstag speech on 28 April, he renounced both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact. In August, Hitler told his generals that his original plan for 1939 was to "establish an acceptable relationship with Poland in order to fight against the West". Historians such as William Carr, Gerhard Weinberg, and Kershaw have argued that one reason for Hitler's rush to war was his fear of an early death.

Hitler was concerned that a military attack against Poland could result in a premature war with Britain. Hitler's foreign minister and former Ambassador to London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, assured him that neither Britain nor France would honour their commitments to Poland. Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.

This plan required tacit Soviet support, and the non-aggression pact (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) between Germany and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, included a secret agreement to partition Poland between the two countries. Contrary to Ribbentrop's prediction that Britain would sever Anglo-Polish ties, Britain and Poland signed the Anglo-Polish alliance on 25 August 1939. This, along with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honour the Pact of Steel, prompted Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September. Hitler unsuccessfully tried to manoeuvre the British into neutrality by offering them a non-aggression guarantee on 25 August; he then instructed Ribbentrop to present a last-minute peace plan with an impossibly short time limit in an effort to blame the imminent war on British and Polish inaction.

Despite his concerns over a British intervention, Hitler continued to pursue the planned invasion of Poland. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland under the pretext of having been denied claims to the Free City of Danzig and the right to extraterritorial roads across the Polish Corridor, which Germany had ceded under the Versailles Treaty. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, surprising Hitler and prompting him to angrily ask Ribbentrop, "Now what?" France and Britain did not act on their declarations immediately, and on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.

The fall of Poland was followed by what contemporary journalists dubbed the "Phoney War" or Sitzkrieg ("sitting war"). Hitler instructed the two newly appointed Gauleiters of north-western Poland, Albert Forster of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland, to Germanise their areas, with "no questions asked" about how this was accomplished. Whereas Polish citizens in Forster's area merely had to sign forms stating that they had German blood, Greiser carried out a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign on the Polish population in his purview. Greiser complained that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be accepted as "racial" Germans and thus endangered German "racial purity". Hitler refrained from getting involved. This inaction has been advanced as an example of the theory of "working towards the Führer": Hitler issued vague instructions and expected his subordinates to work out policies on their own.

Another dispute pitched one side represented by Himmler and Greiser, who championed ethnic cleansing in Poland, against another represented by Göring and Hans Frank, governor-general of the General Government territory of occupied Poland, who called for turning Poland into the "granary" of the Reich. On 12 February 1940, the dispute was initially settled in favour of the Göring–Frank view, which ended the economically disruptive mass expulsions. On 15 May 1940, Himmler issued a memo entitled "Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alien Population in the East", calling for the expulsion of the entire Jewish population of Europe into Africa and reducing the Polish population to a "leaderless class of labourers". Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct", and, ignoring Göring and Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.

Hitler began a military build-up on Germany's western border, and in April 1940, German forces invaded Denmark and Norway. On 9 April, Hitler proclaimed the birth of the Greater Germanic Reich, his vision of a united empire of the Germanic nations of Europe, where the Dutch, Flemish, and Scandinavians were joined into a "racially pure" polity under German leadership. In May 1940, Germany attacked France, and conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These victories prompted Mussolini to have Italy join forces with Hitler on 10 June. France and Germany signed an armistice on 22 June. Kershaw notes that Hitler's popularity within Germany—and German support for the war— reached its peak when he returned to Berlin on 6 July from his tour of Paris. Following the unexpected swift victory, Hitler promoted twelve generals to the rank of field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony.

Britain, whose troops were forced to evacuate France by sea from Dunkirk, continued to fight alongside other British dominions in the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations in South-East England. The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain. By the end of October, Hitler realised that air superiority for the invasion of Britain—in Operation Sea Lion—could not be achieved, and he ordered nightly air raids on British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.

On 27 September 1940, the Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Saburō Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Hitler, and Italian foreign minister Ciano, and later expanded to include Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, thus yielding the Axis powers. Hitler's attempt to integrate the Soviet Union into the anti-British bloc failed after inconclusive talks between Hitler and Molotov in Berlin in November, and he ordered preparations for a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union.

In the Spring of 1941, German forces were deployed to North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. In February, German forces arrived in Libya to bolster the Italian presence. In April, Hitler launched the invasion of Yugoslavia, quickly followed by the invasion of Greece. In May, German forces were sent to support Iraqi rebel forces fighting against the British and to invade Crete.

Path to defeat

On 22 June 1941, contravening the Hitler–Stalin Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, 4–5 million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union. This large-scale offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers. The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily diverted its Panzer groups north and south to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev. His generals disagreed with this change of targets, and his decision caused a major crisis among the military leadership. The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed only in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December.

On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Hitler formally declared war against the United States.

On 18 December 1941, Himmler asked Hitler, "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", to which Hitler replied, "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans"). Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the genocide carried out during the Holocaust.

In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command and began to interfere in military and tactical planning with damaging consequences. In December 1942 and January 1943, Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the almost total destruction of the 6th Army. Over 200,000 Axis soldiers were killed and 235,000 were taken prisoner. Of the estimated 91,000 German soldiers captured in the city itself, only around 6,000 survived captivity and returned to Germany after the war. Thereafter came a decisive strategic defeat at the Battle of Kursk. Hitler's military judgement became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated along with Hitler's health.

Following the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was removed from power by Victor Emmanuel III after a vote of no confidence of the Grand Council. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, placed in charge of the government, soon surrendered to the Allies. Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in what was one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation Overlord. As a result of these significant setbacks for the German army, many of its officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that Hitler's misjudgement or denial would drag out the war and result in the complete destruction of the country.

Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant degrees. The most well known came from within Germany and was at least partly driven by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war. In July 1944, in the 20 July plot, part of Operation Valkyrie, Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in one of Hitler's headquarters, the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg. Hitler narrowly survived because staff officer Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase containing the bomb behind a leg of the heavy conference table. When the bomb exploded, the table deflected much of the blast away. It was also lessened by the open windows. Later, Hitler ordered savage reprisals resulting in the execution of more than 4,900 people.

Defeat and death

By late 1944, both the Red Army and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Recognising the strength and determination of the Red Army, Hitler decided to use his remaining mobile reserves against the American and British troops, which he perceived as far weaker. On 16 December, he launched an offensive in the Ardennes to incite disunity among the Western Allies and perhaps convince them to join his fight against the Soviets. The offensive failed after some initial but temporary successes. With much of Germany in ruins in January 1945, Hitler spoke on the radio to say: "However grave as the crisis may be at this moment, it will, despite everything, be mastered by our unalterable will." Hitler's hope to negotiate peace with the United States and Britain was buoyed by the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945, but contrary to his expectations, this caused no rift among the Allies. Acting on his view that Germany's military failures had forfeited its right to survive as a nation, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands. Minister for Armaments Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth policy, but he secretly disobeyed the order.

On 20 April, his 56th birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the Führerbunker ("Führer's shelter") to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery, he awarded Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth, who were now fighting the Red Army at the front near Berlin. By 21 April, Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the defences of General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula during the Battle of the Seelow Heights and advanced to the outskirts of Berlin. In denial about the dire situation, Hitler placed his hopes on the undermanned and under-equipped Armeeabteilung Steiner (Army Detachment Steiner), commanded by Waffen SS General Felix Steiner. Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the salient, while the German Ninth Army was ordered to attack northward in a pincer attack.

During a military conference on 22 April, Hitler asked about Steiner's offensive. He was told that the attack had not been launched and that the Soviets had entered Berlin. Hitler asked everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room, then launched into a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that "everything was lost". He announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.

By 23 April the Red Army had completely surrounded Berlin, and Goebbels made a proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city. That same day, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Göring should assume leadership of Germany. Göring set a deadline after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated. Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament, written on 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions. On 28 April Hitler discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April, was trying to discuss surrender terms with the Western Allies. He ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin) shot.

After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in the Führerbunker. After a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife, Hitler took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his will. The event was witnessed and documents signed by Krebs, Burgdorf, Goebbels, and Bormann. Later that afternoon, Hitler was informed of the execution of Mussolini, which presumably increased his determination to avoid capture.

On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler shot himself and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule. Their bodies were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the bombed-out garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater and doused with petrol. The corpses were set on fire as the Red Army shelling continued. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels assumed Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively.

Berlin surrendered on 2 May. Records in the Soviet archives, obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union, state that the remains of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler's dogs were repeatedly buried and exhumed. On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg. The remains from the boxes were burned, crushed, and scattered into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the nearby Elbe. According to Kershaw the corpses of Braun and Hitler were fully burned when the Red Army found them, and only a lower jaw with dental work could be identified as Hitler's remains.

The Holocaust

If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!

— Adolf Hitler addressing the German Reichstag, 30 January 1939

The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for the expansion of Germany. He focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and on removing or killing the Jews and Slavs. The Generalplan Ost ("General Plan East") called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered; the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers. The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler moved the plans forward. By January 1942, it had been decided to kill the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered undesirable.

The Holocaust (also known as the "Endlösung der Judenfrage" or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") was ordered by Hitler and organised and executed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. The records of the Wannsee Conference, held on 20 January 1942 and led by Heydrich, with fifteen senior Nazi officials participating, provide the clearest evidence of systematic planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews". Although no direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced, his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry. He approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union—and he was well informed about their activities. By summer 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp was rapidly expanded to accommodate large numbers of deportees for killing or enslavement. Scores of other concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.

Between 1939 and 1945, the Schutzstaffel (SS), assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, was responsible for the deaths of at least eleven million people, including 5.5 to 6 million Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe), and between 200,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people. Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps, ghettos, and through mass executions. Many victims of the Holocaust were gassed to death, whereas others died of starvation or disease or while working as slave labourers. In addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis also planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists. Together, the Hunger Plan and Generalplan Ost would have led to the starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union. These partially fulfilled plans resulted in the democidal deaths of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.

Hitler's policies also resulted in the killing of nearly two million Poles, over three million Soviet prisoners of war, communists and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists. Hitler did not speak publicly about the killings, and seems never to have visited the concentration camps.

The Nazis also embraced the concept of racial hygiene. On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag. The laws banned sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring". The laws also stripped all non-Aryans of their German citizenship and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households. Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities in a programme dubbed Action Brandt, and later authorised a euthanasia programme for adults with serious mental and physical disabilities, now referred to as Action T4.

Leadership style

Hitler ruled the NSDAP autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip ("Leader principle"). The principle relied on absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors; thus he viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections—positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank, who demanded unquestioning obedience to the will of the leader. Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped with those of others, to have "the stronger one the job". In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power. His cabinet never met after 1938, and he discouraged his ministers from meeting independently. Hitler typically did not give written orders; instead he communicated them verbally, or had them conveyed through his close associate, Martin Bormann. He entrusted Bormann with his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.

Hitler dominated his country's war effort during World War II to a greater extent than any other national leader. He assumed the role of supreme commander of the armed forces during 1938, and subsequently made all major decisions regarding Germany's military strategy. His decision to mount a risky series of offensives against Norway, France and the Low Countries in 1940 against the advice of the military proved successful, though the diplomatic and military strategies he employed in attempts to force the United Kingdom out of the war ended in failure. Hitler deepened his involvement in the war effort by appointing himself commander-in-chief of the Army in December 1941; from this point forward he personally directed the war against the Soviet Union, while his military commanders facing the Western Allies retained a degree of autonomy. Hitler's leadership became increasingly disconnected from reality as the war turned against Germany, with the military's defensive strategies often hindered by his slow decision making and frequent directives to hold untenable positions. Nevertheless, he continued to believe that only his leadership could deliver victory. In the final months of the war Hitler refused to consider peace negotiations, regarding the complete destruction of Germany as preferable to surrender. The military did not challenge Hitler's dominance of the war effort, and senior officers generally supported and enacted his decisions.

Legacy

Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken. Public support for Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest. According to historian John Toland, National Socialism "burst like a bubble" without its leader.

Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral; according to Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man". Hitler's political programme brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe. Germany itself suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as "Zero Hour". Hitler's policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale; according to R.J. Rummel, the Nazi regime was responsible for the democidal killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II, and Hitler's role has been described as "... the main author of a war leaving over 50 million dead and millions more grieving their lost ones ...". The total number of civilians killed during the Second World War was an unprecedented development in the history of warfare. Historians, philosophers, and politicians often use the word "evil" to describe the Nazi regime. Many European countries have criminalised both the promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial.

Historian Friedrich Meinecke described Hitler as "one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life". English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper saw him as "among the 'terrible simplifiers' of history, the most systematic, the most historical, the most philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruelest, least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known". For the historian John M. Roberts, Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany. In its place emerged the Cold War, a global confrontation between the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States and other NATO nations, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union. Historian Sebastian Haffner avers that without Hitler and the displacement of the Jews, the modern nation state of Israel would not exist. He contends that without Hitler, the de-colonisation of former European spheres of influence would not have occurred as quickly and would have been postponed. Further, Haffner claims that other than Alexander the Great, Hitler had a more significant impact than any other comparable historical figure, in that he too caused a wide range of worldwide changes in a relatively short time span.

Views on religion

Hitler was born to a practising Catholic mother and an anticlerical father; after leaving home Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments. Speer states that Hitler made harsh pronouncements against the church to his political associates and though he never officially left it, he had no attachment to it. He adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of the church the faithful would turn to mysticism, which he considered a step backwards. According to Speer, Hitler believed that either Japanese religious beliefs or Islam would have been a more suitable religion for the Germans than Christianity, with its "meekness and flabbiness".

Historian John S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches. According to Bullock, Hitler did not believe in God, was anticlerical, and held Christian ethics in contempt because they contravened his preferred view of "survival of the fittest". He favoured aspects of Protestantism that suited his own views, and adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organisation, liturgy, and phraseology in his politics.

Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society, and he adopted a strategic relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes". In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan Jesus", one who fought against the Jews. Any pro-Christian public rhetoric was at variance with his personal beliefs, which described Christianity as "absurdity" and nonsense founded on lies.

According to a U.S. Office of Strategic Services report, "The Nazi Master Plan", Hitler planned to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Reich. His eventual goal was the total elimination of Christianity. This goal informed Hitler's movement very early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to express this extreme position publicly. According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait until after the war before executing this plan.

Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view of Himmler's and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.

Health

Researchers have variously suggested that Hitler suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, coronary sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, syphilis, and tinnitus. In a report prepared for the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, Walter C. Langer of Harvard University described Hitler as a "neurotic psychopath". In his 1977 book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, historian Robert G. L. Waite proposes that Hitler suffered from borderline personality disorder. Historians Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann consider that while Hitler suffered from a number of illnesses including Parkinson's disease, he did not experience pathological delusions and was always fully aware of, and responsible for, the decisions he was making. Theories about Hitler's medical condition are difficult to prove, and placing too much weight on them may have the effect of attributing many of the events and consequences of the Third Reich to the possibly impaired physical health of one individual. Kershaw feels that it is better to take a broader view of German history by examining what social forces led to the Third Reich and its policies rather than to pursue narrow explanations for the Holocaust and World War II based on only one person.

Hitler followed a vegetarian diet. At social events he sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make his dinner guests shun meat. Bormann had a greenhouse constructed near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler throughout the war. Hitler publicly avoided alcohol. He occasionally drank beer and wine in private, but gave up drinking because of weight gain in 1943. He was a non-smoker for most of his life, but smoked heavily in his youth (25 to 40 cigarettes a day). He eventually quit, calling the habit "a waste of money". He encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to any who were able to break the habit. Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to it in late 1942. Speer linked this use of amphetamines to Hitler's increasingly inflexible decision making (for example, rarely allowing military retreats).

Prescribed 90 medications during the war years, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other ailments. He suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the 20 July plot bomb blast in 1944, and 200 wood splinters had to be removed from his legs. Newsreel footage of Hitler shows tremors of his hand and a shuffling walk, which began before the war and worsened towards the end of his life. Hitler's personal physician, Theodor Morell, treated Hitler with a drug that was commonly prescribed in 1945 for Parkinson's disease. Ernst-Günther Schenck and several other doctors who met Hitler in the last weeks of his life also formed a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Family

Hitler created a public image as a celibate man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission and the nation. He met his lover, Eva Braun, in 1929, and married her in April 1945. In September 1931, his half-niece, Geli Raubal, committed suicide with Hitler's gun in his Munich apartment. It was rumoured among contemporaries that Geli was in a romantic relationship with him, and her death was a source of deep, lasting pain. Paula Hitler, the last living member of his immediate family, died in 1960.

In propaganda films

Hitler exploited documentary films and newsreels to inspire a cult of personality. He was involved and appeared in a series of propaganda films throughout his political career—such as Der Sieg des Glaubens and Triumph des Willens—made by Leni Riefenstahl, regarded as a pioneer of modern filmmaking.

List of propaganda and film appearances

• Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith, 1933)
• Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935)
• Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 1935)
• Olympia (1938)

See also

• Führermuseum
• List of Adolf Hitler's personal staff
• Hitler and Mannerheim recording
• Julius Schaub – chief aide
• Karl Mayr – Hitler's superior in army Intelligence 1919–1920
• Karl Wilhelm Krause – personal valet
• List of books by or about Adolf Hitler
• Mein Kampf (online versions)
• Poison Kitchen
• Streets named after Adolf Hitler
• Toothbrush moustache – also known as a 'Hitler moustache' style of facial hair

Notes

1. Hitler also won settlement from a libel suit against the socialist paper the Münchener Post, which had questioned his lifestyle and income. Kershaw 2008, p. 99.
2. MI5, Hitler's Last Days: "Hitler's will and marriage" on the website of MI5, using the sources available to Trevor-Roper (a World War II MI5 agent and historian/author of The Last Days of Hitler), records the marriage as taking place after Hitler had dictated his last will and testament.
3. For a summary of recent scholarship on Hitler's central role in the Holocaust, see McMillan 2012.

References

Citations

1. NS-Archiv, 7 April 1925.
2. Bullock 1999, p. 24.
3. Maser 1973, p. 4.
4. Maser 1973, p. 15.
5. ^ Kershaw 1999, p. 5.
6. Jetzinger 1976, p. 32.
7. Rosenbaum 1999.
8. Hamann 2010, p. 50.
9. Toland 1992, pp. 246–247.
10. Kershaw 1999, pp. 8–9.
11. House of Responsibility.
12. Shirer 1960, pp. 6–9.
13. Rosmus 2004, p. 33.
14. Keller 2010, p. 15.
15. Hamann 2010, pp. 7–8.
16. Kubizek 2006, p. 37.
17. Kubizek 2006, p. 92.
18. Hitler 1999, p. 6.
19. Fromm 1977, pp. 493–498.
20. Shirer 1960, pp. 10–11.
21. Payne 1990, p. 22.
22. Kershaw 2008, p. 9.
23. Hitler 1999, p. 8.
24. Keller 2010, pp. 33–34.
25. Fest 1977, p. 32.
26. Kershaw 2008, p. 8.
27. Hitler 1999, p. 10.
28. Evans 2003, pp. 163–164.
29. Bendersky 2000, p. 26.
30. Ryschka 2008, p. 35.
31. Hamann 2010, p. 13.
32. Kershaw 2008, p. 10.
33. Kershaw 1999, p. 19.
34. Kershaw 1999, p. 20.
35. Hitler 1999, p. 20.
36. Bullock 1962, pp. 30–31.
37. Bullock 1962, p. 31.
38. Bullock 1999, pp. 30–33.
39. Shirer 1960, p. 26.
40. Hamann 2010, pp. 243–246.
41. Nicholls 2000, pp. 236–237.
42. Hamann 2010, pp. 341–345.
43. Hamann 2010, p. 350.
44. Kershaw 1999, pp. 60–67.
45. Hitler 1999, p. 52.
46. Shirer 1960, p. 25.
47. Hamann 2010, pp. 347–359.
48. Kershaw 1999, p. 64.
49. Evans 2011.
50. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 27.
51. Weber 2010, p. 13.
52. Shirer 1960, p. 27, footnote.
53. ^ Kershaw 1999, p. 90.
54. Weber 2010, pp. 12–13.
55. Kershaw 2008, p. 53.
56. Kershaw 2008, p. 54.
57. Weber 2010, p. 100.
58. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 30.
59. Kershaw 2008, p. 59.
60. Weber 2010a.
61. Steiner 1976, p. 392.
62. Kershaw 2008, p. 57.
63. Kershaw 2008, p. 58.
64. Kershaw 2008, pp. 59, 60.
65. Kershaw 1999, pp. 97, 102.
66. Keegan 1987, pp. 238–240.
67. Bullock 1962, p. 60.
68. Kershaw 2008, pp. 61, 62.
69. Kershaw 2008, pp. 61–63.
70. Kershaw 2008, p. 96.
71. Kershaw 2008, pp. 80, 90, 92.
72. Bullock 1999, p. 61.
73. Kershaw 1999, p. 109.
74. Kershaw 2008, p. 82.
75. Stackelberg 2007, p. 9.
76. Mitcham 1996, p. 67.
77. Fest 1970, p. 21.
78. Kershaw 2008, pp. 94, 95, 100.
79. Kershaw 2008, p. 87.
80. Kershaw 2008, p. 88.
81. Kershaw 2008, p. 93.
82. Kershaw 2008, p. 81.
83. Kershaw 2008, p. 89.
84. Kershaw 2008, pp. 89–92.
85. Kershaw 2008, pp. 100, 101.
86. Kershaw 2008, p. 102.
87. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 103.
88. Kershaw 2008, pp. 83, 103.
89. Bullock 1999, p. 376.
90. Frauenfeld 1937.
91. Goebbels 1936.
92. Knickerbocker 1941, p. 46.
93. Kershaw 2008, pp. 105–106.
94. Bullock 1999, p. 377.
95. Kressel 2002, p. 121.
96. Heck 2001, p. 23.
97. Larson 2011, p. 157.
98. Kershaw 1999, p. 367.
99. Kellogg 2005, p. 275.
100. Kellogg 2005, p. 203.
101. Kershaw 2008, p. 126.
102. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 128.
103. Kershaw 2008, p. 129.
104. Kershaw 2008, pp. 130–131.
105. Shirer 1960, pp. 73–74.
106. Kershaw 2008, p. 132.
107. Kershaw 2008, p. 131.
108. Munich Court, 1924.
109. Fulda 2009, pp. 68–69.
110. Kershaw 1999, p. 239.
111. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 121.
112. Kershaw 2008, pp. 148–149.
113. Shirer 1960, pp. 80–81.
114. Kershaw 2008, pp. 158, 161, 162.
115. Kershaw 2008, pp. 162, 166.
116. Shirer 1960, p. 129.
117. Kershaw 2008, pp. 166, 167.
118. Shirer 1960, pp. 136–137.
119. Kolb 2005, pp. 224–225.
120. Kolb 1988, p. 105.
121. Halperin 1965, p. 403 et. seq.
122. Halperin 1965, pp. 434–446 et. seq.
123. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 218.
124. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 216.
125. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, pp. 218–219.
126. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 222.
127. Halperin 1965, p. 449 et. seq.
128. Halperin 1965, pp. 434–436, 471.
129. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 130.
130. Hinrichs 2007.
131. Halperin 1965, p. 476.
132. Halperin 1965, pp. 468–471.
133. Bullock 1962, p. 201.
134. Hoffman 1989.
135. Kershaw 2008, p. 227.
136. Halperin 1965, pp. 477–479.
137. Letter to Hindenburg, 1932.
138. Fox News, 2003.
139. Shirer 1960, p. 184.
140. Evans 2003, p. 307.
141. Bullock 1962, p. 262.
142. Kershaw 1999, pp. 456–458, 731–732.
143. Shirer 1960, p. 192.
144. Bullock 1999, p. 262.
145. Shirer 1960, p. 194, 274.
146. Shirer 1960, p. 194.
147. Bullock 1962, p. 265.
148. City of Potsdam.
149. Shirer 1960, pp. 196–197.
150. Shirer 1960, p. 198.
151. Shirer 1960, p. 196.
152. Bullock 1999, p. 269.
153. Shirer 1960, p. 199.
154. Time, 1934.
155. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 201.
156. Shirer 1960, p. 202.
157. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 350–374.
158. Kershaw 2008, pp. 309–314.
159. Tames 2008, pp. 4–5.
160. Kershaw 2008, pp. 313–315.
161. Overy 2005, p. 63. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFOvery2005 (help)
162. Shirer 1960, pp. 226–227.
163. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 229.
164. Bullock 1962, p. 309.
165. Shirer 1960, p. 230.
166. Kershaw 2008, pp. 392, 393.
167. Shirer 1960, p. 312.
168. Kershaw 2008, pp. 393–397.
169. Shirer 1960, p. 308.
170. Shirer 1960, pp. 318–319.
171. Kershaw 2008, pp. 397–398.
172. Shirer 1960, p. 274.
173. Read 2004, p. 344.
174. McNab 2009, p. 54.
175. Shirer 1960, pp. 259–260.
176. Shirer 1960, p. 258.
177. Shirer 1960, p. 262.
178. McNab 2009, pp. 54–57.
179. Speer 1971, pp. 118–119.
180. Weinberg 1970, pp. 26–27.
181. Kershaw 1999, pp. 490–491.
182. Kershaw 1999, pp. 492, 555–556, 586–587.
183. Carr 1972, p. 23.
184. Kershaw 2008, p. 297.
185. Shirer 1960, p. 283.
186. Messerschmidt 1990, pp. 601–602.
187. Martin 2008.
188. Hildebrand 1973, p. 39.
189. Roberts 1975.
190. Messerschmidt 1990, pp. 630–631.
191. ^ Overy, Origins of WWII Reconsidered 1999.
192. Carr 1972, pp. 56–57.
193. Messerschmidt 1990, p. 642.
194. Aigner 1985, p. 264.
195. ^ Messerschmidt 1990, pp. 636–637.
196. Carr 1972, pp. 73–78.
197. Messerschmidt 1990, p. 638.
198. ^ Bloch 1992, pp. 178–179.
199. Plating 2011, p. 21.
200. Butler & Young 1989, p. 159.
201. Bullock 1962, p. 434.
202. Overy 2005, p. 425. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFOvery2005 (help)
203. Weinberg 1980, pp. 334–335.
204. Weinberg 1980, pp. 338–340.
205. Weinberg 1980, p. 366.
206. Weinberg 1980, pp. 418–419.
207. Kee 1988, pp. 149–150.
208. Weinberg 1980, p. 419.
209. Murray 1984, pp. 256–260.
210. Bullock 1962, p. 469.
211. Overy, The Munich Crisis 1999, p. 207.
212. Kee 1988, pp. 202–203.
213. Weinberg 1980, pp. 462–463.
214. Messerschmidt 1990, p. 672.
215. Messerschmidt 1990, pp. 671, 682–683.
216. Rothwell 2001, pp. 90–91.
217. Time, January 1939.
218. ^ Murray 1984, p. 268.
219. Murray 1984, pp. 268–269.
220. Shirer 1960, p. 448.
221. Weinberg 1980, pp. 579–581.
222. ^ Maiolo 1998, p. 178.
223. ^ Messerschmidt 1990, pp. 688–690.
224. ^ Weinberg 1980, pp. 537–539, 557–560.
225. Weinberg 1980, p. 558.
226. Carr 1972, pp. 76–77.
227. Kershaw 2000b, pp. 36–37, 92.
228. Weinberg 1955.
229. Robertson 1985, p. 212.
230. Bloch 1992, p. 228.
231. Overy & Wheatcroft 1989, p. 56.
232. Kershaw 2008, p. 497.
233. Robertson 1963, pp. 181–187.
234. Evans 2005, p. 693.
235. Bloch 1992, pp. 252–253.
236. Weinberg 1995, pp. 85–94.
237. Bloch 1992, pp. 255–257.
238. Messerschmidt 1990, p. 714.
239. Weinberg 1980, pp. 561–562, 583–584.
240. Bloch 1992, p. 260.
241. Hakim 1995.
242. ^ Rees 1997, pp. 141–145.
243. Kershaw 2008, p. 527.
244. ^ Rees 1997, pp. 148–149.
245. Winkler 2007, p. 74.
246. Shirer 1960, pp. 696–730.
247. Kershaw 2008, p. 562.
248. Deighton 2008, pp. 7–9.
249. Ellis 1993, p. 94.
250. Shirer 1960, pp. 731–737.
251. Shirer 1960, pp. 774–782.
252. Kershaw 2008, pp. 563, 569, 570.
253. Kershaw 2008, p. 580.
254. Roberts 2006, pp. 58–60.
255. Kershaw 2008, pp. 604–605.
256. Kurowski 2005, pp. 141–142.
257. ^ Jones 1989.
258. Glantz 2001, p. 9.
259. Koch 1988.
260. ^ Stolfi 1982.
261. Wilt 1981.
262. Evans 2008, p. 202.
263. Shirer 1960, pp. 900–901.
264. ^ Bauer 2000, p. 5.
265. Shirer 1960, p. 921.
266. Kershaw 2000b, p. 417.
267. Evans 2008, pp. 419–420.
268. Shirer 1960, p. 1006.
269. ^ BBC News, 1999.
270. Shirer 1960, pp. 996–1000.
271. Shirer 1960, p. 1036.
272. Speer 1971, pp. 513–514.
273. Kershaw 2008, pp. 544–547, 821–822, 827–828.
274. Kershaw 2008, pp. 816–818.
275. Shirer 1960, §29.
276. Weinberg 1964.
277. ^ Crandell 1987.
278. Bullock 1962, p. 778.
279. Rees & Kershaw 2012.
280. Bullock 1962, pp. 753, 763, 780–781.
281. ^ Bullock 1962, pp. 774–775.
282. Sereny 1996, pp. 497–498.
283. Beevor 2002, p. 251.
284. Beevor 2002, pp. 255–256.
285. Le Tissier 2010, p. 45.
286. ^ Dollinger 1995, p. 231.
287. Beevor 2002, p. 275.
288. Ziemke 1969, p. 92.
289. Bullock 1962, p. 787.
290. Bullock 1962, pp. 787, 795.
291. Butler & Young 1989, pp. 227–228.
292. Kershaw 2008, pp. 923–925, 943.
293. Bullock 1962, p. 791.
294. Bullock 1962, pp. 792, 795.
295. Beevor 2002, p. 343.
296. Bullock 1962, p. 795.
297. Bullock 1962, p. 798.
298. Linge 2009, p. 199.
299. Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 160–182.
300. Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 217–220.
301. Linge 2009, p. 200.
302. Bullock 1962, pp. 799–800.
303. Kershaw 2008, pp. 949–950.
304. Vinogradov 2005, pp. 111, 333.
305. Vinogradov 2005, pp. 335–336.
306. Kershaw 2000b, p. 1110.
307. Marrus 2000, p. 37.
308. Gellately 1996.
309. ^ Snyder 2010, p. 416.
310. Steinberg 1995.
311. Kershaw 2008, p. 683.
312. Shirer 1960, p. 965.
313. Naimark 2002, p. 81.
314. Megargee 2007, p. 146.
315. ^ Longerich, Chapter 15 2003.
316. Longerich, Chapter 17 2003.
317. Kershaw 2008, pp. 670–675.
318. Megargee 2007, p. 144.
319. Kershaw 2008, p. 687.
320. Evans 2008, map, p. 366.
321. ^ Rummel 1994, p. 112.
322. Evans 2008, p. 318.
323. ^ Holocaust Memorial Museum.
324. Hancock 2004, pp. 383–396.
325. Shirer 1960, p. 946.
326. Snyder 2010, pp. 162–163, 416.
327. Dorland 2009, p. 6.
328. Rummel 1994, table, p. 112.
329. US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
330. Snyder 2010, p. 184.
331. Niewyk & Nicosia 2000, p. 45.
332. Goldhagen 1996, p. 290.
333. Downing 2005, p. 33.
334. Gellately 2001, p. 216.
335. Kershaw 1999, pp. 567–568.
336. Overy 2005, p. 252. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFOvery2005 (help)
337. Kershaw 2008, pp. 170, 172, 181.
338. Speer 1971, p. 281.
339. Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 29.
340. Kershaw 2008, p. 323.
341. Kershaw 2008, p. 377.
342. Speer 1971, p. 333.
343. ^ Overy 2005, pp. 421–425. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFOvery2005 (help)
344. Kershaw 2012, pp. 169–170.
345. Kershaw 2012, pp. 396–397.
346. Kershaw 2008, pp. 171–395.
347. Fest 1974, p. 753.
348. Speer 1971, p. 617.
349. Kershaw 2012, pp. 348–350.
350. Toland 1992, p. 892.
351. Kershaw 2000a, pp. 1–6.
352. ^ Kershaw 2000b, p. 841.
353. Fischer 1995, p. 569.
354. Del Testa, Lemoine & Strickland 2003, p. 83.
355. Murray & Millett 2001, p. 554.
356. Welch 2001, p. 2.
357. Bazyler 2006, p. 1.
358. Shirer 1960, p. 6.
359. Hitler & Trevor-Roper 1988, p. xxxv.
360. Roberts 1996, p. 501.
361. Lichtheim 1974, p. 366.
362. Haffner 1979, pp. 100–101.
363. Haffner 1979, p. 100.
364. Kershaw 2008, p. 5.
365. Rißmann 2001, pp. 94–96.
366. Toland 1992, pp. 9–10.
367. ^ Speer 1971, pp. 141–142.
368. Speer 1971, p. 143.
369. ^ Conway 1968, p. 3.
370. Bullock 1999, pp. 385, 389.
371. Rißmann 2001, p. 96.
372. Speer 1971, p. 141.
373. Steigmann-Gall 2003, pp. 27, 108.
374. Hitler 2000, p. 59.
375. Hitler 2000, p. 342.
376. Sharkey 2002.
377. Bonney 2001.
378. Phayer 2000.
379. Office of Strategic Services, 1945.
380. Bullock 1962, pp. 219, 389.
381. Speer 1971, pp. 141, 171, 174.
382. Bullock 1999, p. 729.
383. Evans 2008, p. 508.
384. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 717.
385. Redlich 2000, pp. 129–190.
386. Langer 1972, p. 126.
387. Waite 1993, p. 356.
388. Gunkel 2010.
389. Kershaw 2000a, p. 72.
390. Kershaw 2008, pp. xxxv–xxxvi.
391. Bullock 1999, p. 388.
392. Wilson 1998.
393. McGovern 1968, pp. 32–33.
394. Linge 2009, p. Chapter 3.
395. Proctor 1999, p. 219.
396. Toland 1992, p. 741.
397. Heston & Heston 1980, pp. 125–142.
398. Heston & Heston 1980, pp. 11–20.
399. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 782.
400. Linge 2009, p. 156.
401. O'Donnell 2001, p. 37.
402. Bullock 1999, p. 563.
403. Kershaw 2008, p. 378.
404. Kershaw 2008, pp. 947–948.
405. Bullock 1962, pp. 393–394.
406. Kershaw 2008, p. 4.
407. The Daily Telegraph, 2003.

Sources

• Aigner, Dietrich (1985). "Hitler's ultimate aims – a programme of world dominion?". In Koch, H.W (ed.). Aspects of the Third Reich. London: MacMillan. ISBN 978-0-312-05726-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bauer, Yehuda (2000). Rethinking the Holocaust. Yale University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-300-08256-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Beevor, Antony (2002). Berlin: The Downfall 1945. London: Viking-Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-03041-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bendersky, Joseph W (2000). A History of Nazi Germany: 1919–1945. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-1003-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bloch, Michael (1992). Ribbentrop. New York: Crown Publishing. ISBN 978-0-517-59310-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bonney, Richard (2001). "The Nazi Master Plan, Annex 4: The Persecution of the Christian Churches" (PDF). Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion. Retrieved 7 June 2011. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bullock, Alan (1962) . Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-013564-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bullock, Alan (1999) . Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-036-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Butler, Ewan; Young, Gordon (1989). The Life and Death of Hermann Göring. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-9455-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Carr, William (1972). Arms, Autarky and Aggression. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 978-0-7131-5668-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Conway, John S. (1968). The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933–45. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-76315-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Crandell, William F. (1987). "Eisenhower the Strategist: The Battle of the Bulge and the Censure of Joe McCarthy". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 17 (3): 487–501. JSTOR 27550441. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Deighton, Len (2008). Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-84595-106-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Del Testa, David W; Lemoine, Florence; Strickland, John (2003). Government Leaders, Military Rulers, and Political Activists. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-57356-153-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dollinger, Hans (1995) . The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: A Pictorial History of the Final Days of World War II. New York: Gramercy. ISBN 978-0-517-12399-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dorland, Michael (2009). Cadaverland: Inventing a Pathology of Catastrophe for Holocaust Survival: The Limits of Medical Knowledge and Memory in France. Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry series. Waltham, Mass: University Press of New England. ISBN 1-58465-784-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Downing, David (2005). The Nazi Death Camps. World Almanac Library of the Holocaust. Gareth Stevens. ISBN 978-0-8368-5947-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ellis, John (1993). World War II Databook: The Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants. London: Aurum. ISBN 1-85410-254-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Evans, Richard J. (2003). The Coming of the Third Reich. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-303469-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-303790-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich At War. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-311671-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fest, Joachim C. (1970). The Face of the Third Reich. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-17949-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fest, Joachim C. (1974) . Hitler. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-76755-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fest, Joachim C. (1977) . Hitler. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-021983-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fischer, Klaus P. (1995). Nazi Germany: A New History. London: Constable and Company. ISBN 978-0-09-474910-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fromm, Erich (1977) . The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-004258-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fulda, Bernhard (2009). Press and Politics in the Weimar Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954778-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gellately, Robert (1996). "Reviewed work(s): Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan by Czeslaw Madajczyk. Der "Generalplan Ost". Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik by Mechtild Rössler; Sabine Schleiermacher". Central European History. 29 (2): 270–274. doi:10.1017/S0008938900013170. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gellately, Robert (2001). Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-08684-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Goldhagen, Daniel (1996). Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-679-44695-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Haffner, Sebastian (1979). The Meaning of Hitler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-55775-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hakim, Joy (1995). War, Peace, and All That Jazz. A History of US. Vol. 9. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509514-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Halperin, Samuel William (1965) . Germany Tried Democracy: A Political History of the Reich from 1918 to 1933. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00280-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hamann, Brigitte (2010) . Hitler's Vienna: A Portrait of the Tyrant as a Young Man. Trans. Thomas Thornton. London; New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 978-1-84885-277-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hancock, Ian (2004). "Romanies and the Holocaust: A Reevaluation and an Overview". In Stone, Dan (ed.). The Historiography of the Holocaust. New York; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-99745-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Heck, Alfons (2001) . A Child of Hitler: Germany In The Days When God Wore A Swastika. Phoenix, AZ: Renaissance House. ISBN 978-0-939650-44-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Heston, Leonard L.; Heston, Renate (1980) . The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler: His Illnesses, Doctors, and Drugs. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 978-0-8128-2718-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hildebrand, Klaus (1973). The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-1126-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hitler, Adolf (1999) . Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-92503-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hitler, Adolf; Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1988) . Hitler's Table-Talk, 1941–1945: Hitler's Conversations Recorded by Martin Bormann. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285180-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hitler, Adolf (2000) . Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944. London: Enigma. ISBN 1-929631-05-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jetzinger, Franz (1976) . Hitler's Youth. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-8371-8617-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) . The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, the Evidence, the Truth. Trans. Helmut Bögler. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kee, Robert (1988). Munich: The Eleventh Hour. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-12537-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Keegan, John (1987). The Mask of Command: A Study of Generalship. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-6526-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Keller, Gustav (2010). Der Schüler Adolf Hitler: die Geschichte eines lebenslangen Amoklaufs (in German). Münster: LIT. ISBN 978-3-643-10948-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Kellogg, Michael (2005). The Russian Roots of Nazism White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84512-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kershaw, Ian (1999) . Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-04671-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kershaw, Ian (2000a) . The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (4th ed.). London: Arnold. ISBN 978-0-340-76028-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kershaw, Ian (2000b). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32252-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kershaw, Ian (2012). The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944–45 (Paperback ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-101421-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Knickerbocker, H. R. (1941). Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions On the Battle of Mankind. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Koch, H. W. (June 1988). "Operation Barbarossa – The Current State of the Debate". The Historical Journal. 31 (2): 377–390. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00012930. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kolb, Eberhard (2005) . The Weimar Republic. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-34441-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kolb, Eberhard (1988) . The Weimar Republic. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-09077-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kressel, Neil J. (2002). Mass Hate: The Global Rise Of Genocide And Terror. Boulder: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-8133-3951-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kubizek, August (2006) . The Young Hitler I Knew. St. Paul, MN: MBI. ISBN 978-1-85367-694-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kurowski, Franz (2005). The Brandenburger Commandos: Germany's Elite Warrior Spies in World War II. Stackpole Military History series. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3250-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Langer, Walter C. (1972) . The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-04620-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Larson, Erik (2011). In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. New York: Random House/Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-40884-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lichtheim, George (1974). Europe In The Twentieth Century. London: Sphere Books. ISBN 978-0-351-17192-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Linge, Heinz (2009) . With Hitler to the End: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Valet. Intro. Roger Moorhouse. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60239-804-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Maiolo, Joseph (1998). The Royal Navy and Nazi Germany 1933–39: Appeasement and the Origins of the Second World War. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-0-333-72007-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Manvell, Roger; Fraenkel, Heinrich (2007) . Heinrich Himmler: The Sinister Life of the Head of the SS and Gestapo. London; New York: Greenhill; Skyhorse. ISBN 978-1-60239-178-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Maser, Werner (1973). Hitler: Legend, Myth, Reality. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-0473-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Marrus, Michael (2000). The Holocaust in History. Toronto: Key Porter. ISBN 978-0-299-23404-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• McGovern, James (1968). Martin Bormann. New York: William Morrow. OCLC 441132. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• McNab, Chris (2009). The Third Reich. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906626-51-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Megargee, Geoffrey P. (2007). War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4482-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Messerschmidt, Manfred (1990). "Foreign Policy and Preparation for War". In Deist, Wilhelm (ed.). Germany and the Second World War. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822866-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mitcham, Samuel W. (1996). Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich. Westport, Conn: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-95485-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Murray, Williamson (1984). The Change in the European Balance of Power. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-05413-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Murray, Williamson; Millett, Allan R. (2001) . A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War. Cambridge, MA.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00680-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Naimark, Norman M. (2002). Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00994-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nicholls, David (2000). Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0874369657. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Niewyk, Donald L.; Nicosia, Francis R. (2000). The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11200-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• O'Donnell, James P. (2001) . The Bunker. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80958-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Overy, Richard; Wheatcroft, Andrew (1989). The Road To War. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-14-028530-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Overy, Richard (1999). "Germany and the Munich Crisis: A Mutilated Victory?". In Lukes, Igor; Goldstein, Erik (eds.). The Munich Crisis, 1938: Prelude to World War II. London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass. OCLC 40862187.
• Overy, Richard (1999). "Misjudging Hitler". In Martel, Gordon (ed.). The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered. London: Routledge. pp. 93–115. ISBN 978-0-415-16324-8.
• Overy, Richard (2005). The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-393-02030-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Overy, Richard (2005). Hitler As War Leader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-192-80670-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Payne, Robert (1990) . The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0-88029-402-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Plating, John D. (2011). The Hump: America's Strategy for Keeping China in World War II. Williams-Ford Texas A&M University military history series, no. 134. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-60344-238-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Proctor, Robert (1999). The Nazi War on Cancer. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07051-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Read, Anthony (2004). The Devil's Disciples: The Lives and Times of Hitler's Inner Circle. London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6416-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Redlich, Fritz R. (September 2000). Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513631-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rees, Laurence (1997). The Nazis: A Warning from History. New York: New Press. ISBN 978-0-563-38704-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rißmann, Michael (2001). Hitlers Gott. Vorsehungsglaube und Sendungsbewußtsein des deutschen Diktators (in German). Zürich München: Pendo. ISBN 978-3-85842-421-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Roberts, G. (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11204-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Roberts, J. M. (1996). A History of Europe. Oxford: Helicon. ISBN 978-1-85986-178-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Roberts, Martin (1975). The New Barbarism – A Portrait of Europe 1900–1973. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-913225-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Robertson, Esmonde M. (1963). Hitler's Pre-War Policy and Military Plans: 1933–1939. London: Longmans. OCLC 300011871. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Robertson, E. M. (1985). "Hitler Planning for War and the Response of the Great Powers". In H.W, Koch (ed.). Aspects of the Third Reich. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-05726-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rosenbaum, Ron (1999). Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-095339-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rosmus, Anna Elisabeth (2004). Out of Passau: Leaving a City Hitler Called Home. Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-508-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rothwell, Victor (2001). The Origins of the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5957-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rummel, Rudolph (1994). Death by Government. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. ISBN 978-1-56000-145-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ryschka, Birgit (29 September 2008). Constructing and Deconstructing National Identity: Dramatic Discourse in Tom Murphy's the Patriot Game and Felix Mitterer's in Der Löwengrube. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-58111-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sereny, Gitta (1996) . Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth. New York; Toronto: Vintage. ISBN 0-679-76812-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-62420-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Snyder, Timothy (2010). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00239-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Speer, Albert (1971) . Inside the Third Reich. New York: Avon. ISBN 978-0-380-00071-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stackelberg, Roderick (2007). The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-30860-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/978-0-521-82371-5. ISBN 978-0-521-82371-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Steinberg, Jonathan (June 1995). "The Third Reich Reflected: German Civil Administration in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941-4". The English Historical Review. 110 (437): 620–651. doi:10.1093/ehr/CX.437.620. OCLC 83655937. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Steiner, John Michael (1976). Power Politics and Social Change in National Socialist Germany: A Process of Escalation into Mass Destruction. The Hague: Mouton. ISBN 978-90-279-7651-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stolfi, Russel (March 1982). "Barbarossa Revisited: A Critical Reappraisal of the Opening Stages of the Russo-German Campaign (June–December 1941)". The Journal of Modern History. 54 (1): 27–46. doi:10.1086/244076. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tames, Richard (2008). Dictatorship. Chicago: Heinemann Library. ISBN 978-1-4329-0234-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Le Tissier, Tony (2010) . Race for the Reichstag. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84884-230-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Toland, John (1992) . Adolf Hitler. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-42053-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vinogradov, V. K. (2005). Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB. Chaucer Press. ISBN 978-1-904449-13-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Waite, Robert G. L. (1993) . The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80514-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weber, Thomas (2010). Hitler's First War: Adolf Hitler, The Men of the List Regiment, and the First World War. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-923320-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weinberg, Gerhard (December 1955). "Hitler's Private Testament of 2 May 1938". The Journal of Modern History. 27 (4): 415–419. doi:10.1086/237831. OCLC 482752575. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weinberg, Gerhard (December 1964). "Hitler's Image of the United States". The American Historical Review. 69 (4): 1006–1021. doi:10.2307/1842933. JSTOR 1842933. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weinberg, Gerhard (1970). The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Diplomatic Revolution in Europe 1933–1936. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-88509-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weinberg, Gerhard (1980). The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Starting World War II. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-88511-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weinberg, Gerhard (1995). "Hitler and England, 1933–1945: Pretense and Reality". Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47407-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Welch, David (2001). Hitler: Profile of a Dictator. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-25075-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wheeler-Bennett, John (1967). The Nemesis of Power. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-1812-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wilt, Alan (December 1981). "Hitler's Late Summer Pause in 1941". Military Affairs. 45 (4): 187–191. doi:10.2307/1987464. JSTOR 1987464. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Winkler, Heinrich August (2007). Germany: The Long Road West. Vol. 2, 1933–1990. Sager, Alexander (trans.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926598-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ziemke, Earl F. (1969). Battle for Berlin: End of the Third Reich. Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II. Vol. Battle Book #6. Ballantine Books. OCLC 23899. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Online

• "1933 – Day of Potsdam". City of Potsdam. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
• Bazyler, Michael J. (25 December 2006). "Holocaust Denial Laws and Other Legislation Criminalizing Promotion of Nazism" (PDF). Yad Vashem. Retrieved 7 January 2013. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Der Hitler-Prozeß vor dem Volksgericht in München" (in German). 1924. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• "Documents: Bush's Grandfather Directed Bank Tied to Man Who Funded Hitler". Fox News. 17 October 2003. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
• "Eingabe der Industriellen an Hindenburg vom November 1932". Glasnost–Archiv. Retrieved 16 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Evans, Richard J. (22 June 2011). "How the First World War shaped Hitler". The Globe and Mail. Phillip Crawley. Retrieved 23 September 2012. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Frauenfeld, A. E (August 1937). "The Power of Speech". Calvin College. Retrieved 1 December 2014. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Germany: Second Revolution?". Time Magazine. Time. 2 July 1934. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
• Glantz, David (11 October 2001). "The Soviet‐German War 1941–45: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay" (PDF). Clemson, SC: Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Clemson University. Retrieved 12 December 2012. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Goebbels, Joseph (1936). "The Führer as a Speaker". Calvin College. Retrieved 1 December 2014. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gunkel, Christoph (4 February 2010). "Medicating a Madman: A Sober Look at Hitler's Health". Spiegel Online International. Retrieved 12 December 2013. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hinrichs, Per (10 March 2007). "Des Führers Pass: Hitlers Einbürgerung" (in German). Spiegel Online. Retrieved 1 December 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• "Hitler ersucht um Entlassung aus der österreichischen Staatsangehörigkeit" (in German). NS-Archiv. 7 April 1925. Retrieved 13 April 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• "Hitler's Last Days". mi5.gov.uk. MI5 Security Service. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
• Hoffman, David (creator, writer) (1989). How Hitler Lost the War (television documentary). US: Varied Directions. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
• "Introduction to the Holocaust". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
• Jones, Bill (creator, director) (1989). The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler (television documentary). England: BBC. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
• Kotanko, Florian. "House of Responsibility". HRB News. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
• "Leni Riefenstahl". The Daily Telegraph. London: TMG. 10 September 2003. ISSN 0307-1235. OCLC 49632006. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
• Longerich, Heinz Peter (2003). "Hitler's Role in the Persecution of the Jews by the Nazi Regime". Atlanta: Emory University. 15. Hitler and the Mass Shootings of Jews During the War Against Russia. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Longerich, Heinz Peter (2003). "Hitler's Role in the Persecution of the Jews by the Nazi Regime". Atlanta: Emory University. 17. Radicalisation of the Persecution of the Jews by Hitler at the Turn of the Year 1941–1942. Archived from the original on 9 July 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• "Man of the Year". Time Magazine. Time. 2 January 1939. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Martin, Jonathan (creator, writer) (2008). World War II In HD Colour (television documentary). US: World Media Rights. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
• McMillan, Dan (October 2012). "Review of Fritz, Stephen G., Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East". H-Genocide, H-Net Reviews. Retrieved 16 October 2012. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Office of Strategic Services (1945). "The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches". Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Law Library: 6–7. OCLC 320083040.
• "Parkinson's part in Hitler's downfall". BBC News. 29 July 1999. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
• Phayer, Michael (2000). "The Response of the Catholic Church to National Socialism" (PDF). The Churches and Nazi Persecution. Yad Vashem. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era: The Invasion and Occupation of Poland". ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 3 March 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
• Rees, Laurence (writer, director) Kershaw, Ian (writer, consultant) (2012). The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler (television documentary). UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
• Sharkey, Joe (13 January 2002). "Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2011. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weber, Thomas (2010a). "New Evidence Uncovers Hitler's Real First World War Story". Immediate Media Company. UK: BBC History Magazine. Retrieved 27 August 2014. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wilson, Bee (9 October 1998). "Mein Diat – Adolf Hitler's diet". New Statesman. UK: Questia. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2008. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) (subscription required)

External links

• Works by or about Adolf Hitler at the Internet Archive
• Adolf Hitler at IMDb – real life footage in documentaries
• Template:IMDb character – as portrayed in film and TV
• "Adolf Hitler". The Vault. FBI Records.
• "Hitler and his officers". World War II Movies in Color. WW2inColor.

Topics related to Adolf Hitler

v t e Adolf Hitler Politics Führer Führerprinzip Political views Political directives List Speeches Prophecy Mein Kampf in Arabic in English Zweites Buch Last will and testament Books Nazism Events Military career Rise to power Hitler cabinet Nazi Germany World War II The Holocaust Assassination attempts Death conspiracy theories Places of residence Führer Headquarters Berghof (Kehlsteinhaus) Reich Chancellery (Führerbunker / Vorbunker) Adlerhorst Anlage Süd Felsennest Tannenberg Werwolf Wolf's Lair Wolfsschlucht I Wolfsschlucht II Special train (Führersonderzug) Civilian residences Braunau am Inn Linz Vienna (Meldemannstraße dormitory) Munich (16 Prinzregentenplatz) Obersalzberg (Kampfhäusl) Personal life Health possible monorchism Wealth and income Religious views Sexuality Vegetarianism Staff Bodyguard August Kubizek Stefanie Rabatsch Reinhold Hanisch Psychopathography Hitler's Table Talk Paintings 50th birthday German naturalization Personal belongings Hitler's Globe Private library Perceptions Books Cult of personality In popular culture Killing baby Hitler The Victory of Faith Triumph of the Will Hitler: The Last Ten Days The Meaning of Hitler Hitler Diaries Moloch Hitler: The Rise of Evil Downfall Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler Apocalypse: Hitler Family Eva Braun (wife) Alois Hitler (father) Klara Hitler (mother) Johann Georg Hiedler (grandfather) Maria Schicklgruber (grandmother) Angela Hitler (half-sister) Paula Hitler (sister) Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr. (half-nephew) Geli Raubal (half-niece) William Stuart-Houston (half-nephew) Heinz Hitler (half-nephew) Jean-Marie Loret (possible illegitimate son) Blondi (dog) Other Streets named after Hitler Mannerheim recording Category Links to related articles v t e Chancellors of Germany (since 1867) North German Confederation Bundeskanzler (1867–1871) Otto von Bismarck German Empire Reichskanzler (1871–1918) Otto von Bismarck Leo von Caprivi Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst Bernhard von Bülow Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg Georg Michaelis Georg von Hertling Prince Maximilian of Baden Weimar Republic Reichskanzler (1919–1933) Friedrich Ebert Philipp Scheidemann (as Ministerpräsident) Gustav Bauer (as Ministerpräsident, later Chancellor) Hermann Müller Constantin Fehrenbach Joseph Wirth Wilhelm Cuno Gustav Stresemann Wilhelm Marx Hans Luther Wilhelm Marx Hermann Müller Heinrich Brüning Franz von Papen Kurt von Schleicher Adolf Hitler Nazi Germany Reichskanzler (1933–1945) Adolf Hitler Joseph Goebbels Count Schwerin von Krosigk (as Leading Minister) Federal Republic Bundeskanzler (1949–present) Konrad Adenauer (CDU, 1949–1963) Ludwig Erhard (CDU, 1963–1966) Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU, 1966–1969) Willy Brandt (SPD, 1969–1974) Helmut Schmidt (SPD, 1974–1982) Helmut Kohl (CDU, 1982–1998) Gerhard Schröder (SPD, 1998–2005) Angela Merkel (CDU, 2005–2021) Olaf Scholz (SPD, 2021–present) List of chancellors v t e Heads of State of Germany (since 1871) German Reich (1871–1945) Emperors: Wilhelm I • Frederick III • Wilhelm II Presidents: Friedrich Ebert • Paul von Hindenburg • Adolf Hitler (Führer and Reichskanzler) • Karl Dönitz Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949) Theodor Heuss Heinrich Lübke Gustav Heinemann Walter Scheel Karl Carstens Richard von Weizsäcker Roman Herzog Johannes Rau Horst Köhler Christian Wulff Joachim Gauck Frank-Walter Steinmeier East Germany (1949–1990) Wilhelm Pieck Walter Ulbricht Willi Stoph Erich Honecker Egon Krenz Manfred Gerlach Sabine Bergmann-Pohl Italics indicates acting holder v t e Members of the Hitler Cabinet Chancellor: Adolf Hitler Vice-Chancellor: Franz von Papen Deputy Führer: Rudolf Hess President of the Reichstag: Hermann Göring Armaments Fritz Todt Albert Speer Aviation Hermann Göring Church Affairs Hanns Kerrl Hermann Muhs (acting) Eastern Territories Alfred Rosenberg Economics Alfred Hugenberg Kurt Schmitt Hjalmar Schacht Hermann Göring Walther Funk Education Bernhard Rust Finance Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk Food and Agriculture Alfred Hugenberg Richard Walther Darré Herbert Backe Foreign Affairs Konstantin von Neurath Joachim von Ribbentrop Interior Wilhelm Frick Heinrich Himmler Justice Franz Gürtner Franz Schlegelberger (acting) Otto Georg Thierack Labour Franz Seldte Postal Affairs Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach Wilhelm Ohnesorge Propaganda Joseph Goebbels Reichswehr Werner von Blomberg Transport Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach Julius Dorpmüller Reichsministers without portfolio Hans Frank Wilhelm Frick Hermann Göring Rudolf Hess Konstantin Hierl Hanns Kerrl Hans Lammers Konstantin von Neurath Ernst Röhm Hjalmar Schacht Arthur Seyss-Inquart Members granted rank & authority equivalent to a Reichsminister Martin Bormann Walther von Brauchitsch Karl Dönitz Karl Hermann Frank Werner von Fritsch Wilhelm Keitel Otto Meissner Erich Raeder Reichsführer SS: Heinrich Himmler Stabschef SA: Ernst Röhm v t e Final occupants of the Führerbunker by date of departure (1945) 20 April Hermann Göring Heinrich Himmler 21 April Robert Ley Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer 22 April Hugo Blaschke Karl Gebhardt Christa Schroeder Johanna Wolf Eckhard Christian 23 April Albert Bormann Theodor Morell Joachim von Ribbentrop Albert Speer Julius Schaub 24 April Walter Frentz 28 April Robert Ritter von Greim Hanna Reitsch 29 April Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven Gerhard Boldt Rudolf Weiss Wilhelm Zander Heinz Lorenz Willy Johannmeyer Walter Wagner 30 April Nicolaus von Below 1 May Wilhelm Mohnke Traudl Junge Gerda Christian Constanze Manziarly Else Krüger Otto Günsche Walther Hewel Ernst-Günther Schenck Hans-Erich Voss Johann Rattenhuber Peter Högl Werner Naumann Martin Bormann Hans Baur Ludwig Stumpfegger Artur Axmann Georg Betz Heinz Linge Erich Kempka Heinrich Doose Günther Schwägermann Ewald Lindloff Hans Reisser Armin D. Lehmann Josef Ochs Heinz Krüger Werner Schwiedel Gerhard Schach Hans Fritzsche Käthe Heusermann 2 May Helmuth Weidling Hans Refior Theodor von Dufving Siegfried Knappe Rochus Misch Still present on 2 May Werner Haase Erna Flegel Helmut Kunz Fritz Tornow Liselotte Chervinska Johanna Ruf Johannes Hentschel Committed suicide Ernst-Robert Grawitz (24 April) Adolf Hitler (30 April) Eva Hitler (née Braun, 30 April) Joseph Goebbels (1 May) Magda Goebbels (1 May) Alwin-Broder Albrecht (1 May) Wilhelm Burgdorf (2 May) Hans Krebs (2 May) Franz Schädle (2 May) Killed Hermann Fegelein (executed for desertion, 28 April) Blondi (Hitler's dog, poisoned 29 April) Goebbels children (poisoned 1 May) Unknown Heinrich Müller v t e Fascism Themes Core tenets Actual idealism Aestheticization of politics Anti-communism Anti-intellectualism Anti-materialism Anti-pacifism Authoritarianism Chauvinism Class collaboration Conspiracism Corporatism Cult of personality Dictatorship Direct action Dirigisme Economic interventionism Eugenics Heroic capitalism Heroic realism Heroism Imperialism Indoctrination Irrationalism Machismo Masculinity Militarism National syndicalism Nationalism Integral Palingenetic Ultra New Man One-party state Perpetual war Populism Proletarian nation Propaganda Racism Reactionary modernism Social Darwinism Social interventionism Social order State capitalism Statolatry Supercapitalism Syncretism Third Position Totalitarianism Topics Definitions Economics Fascism and ideology Fascism worldwide Symbolism Variants Arab Argentine Nacionalismo Orthodox Peronism Austrian Banderism Brazilian British Christian Christian Identity Mexican synarchism Clerical Confucian Crypto Eco Falangism French Doriotism Pétainism Neo-Pétainism Jeune Nation L'Œuvre Française Valoisism Hindu Hungarism Hutu Irish Islamic Ziaism Italian Intransigent Japanese Reform bureaucratism Statism Restoration Jewish Kahanism Revisionist Maximalism Korean Ilminism Nyulaiteu LaRoucheism Latvian Mystical Nazism Austrian Esoteric Hitlerism Neo-Nazism Russian Strasserism Swedish Neo Finnish NRx Pan-Turkic Rexism Romanian Legionarism Neo-Legionarism Romanianism/Stelism Russian Neo-Eurasianism Syndicalist Syrian Social Nationalism Techno Third Positionism National-anarchism National Bolshevism Nazi-Maoism Uruguayan Marzism Revisionism Sosism Ustašism Movements Africa Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging Greyshirts Muslim Association of the Lictor Ossewabrandwag Young Egypt Party (1933) Asia Abhinav Bharat Al-Muthanna Club Aria Party Azerbaijan National Democrat Party Azure Party Black Dragon Society Brit HaBirionim Concordia Association Grey Wolves Golden Square Hindu Mahasabha Iran-e-No Party Jewish National Front Kach Kataeb Party Kenkokukai Kokumin Dōmei Korea Nationalist Party Korean National Youth Association Lehi Liberal Party (South Korea) Nasyonal Aktivite ve Zinde İnkişaf National Socialism Association National Socialist Japanese Workers' Party Nationalist Movement Party Nationalist Task Party National Will Party Nation Party of Iran Otzma Yehudit Pan-Iranist Party Palestine Arab Party Patrol 36 Progress Party (Iran) Philippine Falange Rastakhiz Party Rastriya Prajatantra Party Reform bureaucrats Religious Zionist Party Sakurakai Sangh Parivar Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Bharatiya Gau Raksha Dal Bharatiya Janata Party Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha Bharatiya Jana Sangh Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh Bharat Vikas Parishad Ekal Vidyalaya Hindu Makkal Katchi Hindu Munnani Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Jammu Praja Parishad Muslim Rashtriya Manch Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Rashtra Sevika Samiti Rashtriya Sikh Sangat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana Seva Bharati Vidya Bharati Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram Vishva Hindu Parishad Bajrang Dal Durga Vahini SUMKA Syrian Social Nationalist Party Tōhōkai Tsagaan Khas Turkish Union Party Wang Jingwei Kuomintang Northern / Northwestern Europe Academic Karelia Society Ailtirí na hAiséirghe Autonome Nationalisten Bases Autónomas Black Front (Netherlands) Blood & Honour Blueshirts Breton Social-National Workers' Movement British Democratic Party British Fascists Britain First British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women British Movement British National Party (1960) British National Party British People's Party (1939) British People's Party (2005) British Union of Fascists The Britons La Cagoule Casuals United Centre Party '86 Clerical People's Party Dutch Fascist Union English Defence League English National Association European Liberation Front Le Faisceau Fédération d'action nationale et européenne Finnish National Socialist Labor Organisation Finnish People's Organisation Finnish-Socialist Workers' Party Flemish National Union French National-Collectivist Party French Nationalist Party French Popular Party General Dutch Fascist League Greater Britain Movement Groupe Collaboration Heathen Front Imperial Fascist League International Third Position Jeune Nation Lalli Alliance of Finland Lapua Movement League of Saint George Les Identitaires Mouvement d'Action Civique Mouvement Franciste Nasjonal Samling National Action (UK) National Alliance (Sweden) National Corporate Party National Fascisti National Front (UK) National League of Sweden Nationalist Party National Popular Rally National Rally National Socialist Bloc National Socialist Dutch Workers Party National Socialist Front National Socialist League National Socialist Movement (UK, 1962) National Socialist Movement (United Kingdom) National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands National Socialist Movement of Norway National Socialist Union of Finland National Socialist Workers' Party (Sweden) National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark National Socialists of Finland National Syndicalists National Union (Netherlands) National Union (Portugal) New Party Nipsters Nordic League The Nordic Realm Party Nordic Resistance Movement Northern League Norwegian Defence League Nouvelle Droite GRECE L'Œuvre Française Official National Front Order of Flemish Militants Order of Nine Angles Organisation of National Socialists Parti Communautaire National-Européen Party of Finnish Labor Party of the Swedes Patriotic Alternative Patriotic People's Movement Patriotic People's Movement (1993) Pērkonkrusts Phalange Française Rexist Party Rising Finland Scottish Democratic Fascist Party Scottish Protestant League Stormers Terre et Peuple Third Way (France) Third Way (UK) Union Movement Verdinaso Vigrid White Aryan Resistance World Union of National Socialists Central Europe Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists Arrow Cross Party Artgemeinschaft Austrian Nazism Black Front (Germany) Bund Deutscher Osten Christian National Socialist Front Deutsche Reichspartei Eidgenössische Sammlung Free German Workers' Party German Faith Movement German National Movement in Liechtenstein German National Socialist Workers' Party (Czechoslovakia) German Social Union Hungarian National Front Hungarian National Socialist Agricultural Labourers' and Workers' Party Hungarian National Socialist Party Kampfbund Deutscher Sozialisten Liechtenstein Homeland Service National Democratic Party (Austria) National Democratic Party of Germany National Front (Hungary) National Front (Switzerland) National Movement of Switzerland National Radical Camp National Radical Camp (1993) National Revival of Poland National Union (Switzerland) Nationalist Front (Germany) Nazi Party Greater German People's Community Nazi Germany National Socialist Freedom Movement National Socialist Working Association New Order Nipsters Positive Christianity German Christians The Right (Germany) Socialist Reich Party Sudeten German Party The Third Path United Hungarian National Socialist Party Volksdeutsche Bewegung Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit Wiking-Jugend Southern Europe ADÑ–Spanish Identity Albanian Fascist Party Balli Kombëtar Brothers of Italy CEDADE Democratic Fascist Party European Nation State Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria Fasci Italiani di Combattimento Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria Falange Sección Femenina La Falange (1999) Falange Auténtica Falange Española Falange Española Auténtica Falange Española de las JONS Falange Española de las JONS (1976) Falange Española Independiente Falangist Movement of Spain Freethinkers' Party Imperium Europa Italian fascism National Fascist Party (Italy) Italian Social Republic Republican Fascist Party Italian Social Movement Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista Juntas Españolas National Alliance (Spain) National Alliance July 18 National Democracy (Italy) National Democracy (Spain) National Front (Spain, 1986) National Front (Spain, 2006) National Union (Italy, 1923) National Union (Spain) New Force (Italy) New Force (Spain) Republican Social Movement The Right (Italy) Sammarinese Fascist Party Spanish Military Union Struggle of the People Student Action Terza Posizione Tricolour Flame Unidad Falangista Montañesa Youth Front Eastern and Southeastern Europe Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights Bosnian Movement of National Pride Bulgarian National Socialist Workers Party Croatian Liberation Movement Croatian National Resistance Croatian Party of Rights Crusade of Romanianism Ethnic National Union Eurasia Movement Eurasia Party Falanga Format18 For the Native Language! Front of National Revolutionary Action German Party German People's Party Golden Dawn Greek National Socialist Party Hosank Iron Guard LEPEN Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Lithuanian Nationalist Union National Agrarian Party National Bolshevik Front National Bolshevik Party National-Christian Defense League National Christian Party National Fascist Community National Fascist Movement National Italo-Romanian Cultural and Economic Movement National Party – Greeks National Socialist Patriotic Organisation National Socialist Society National Social Movement National Radical Camp National Romanian Fascio National Renaissance Front National Salvation Front National Socialism / White Power Occupy Pedophilia Order of Nine Angles Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov Pamyat Patriotic Alliance People's Party Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine Ratniks (Bulgaria) Romanian Front Russian Imperial Movement Russian Fascist Party Russian National Unity Russian Women's Fascist Movement Serbian Action Serbian Radical Party Slovak People's Party Steel Shield Svoboda Union of Bulgarian National Legions Ustaše Ustaše in Australia Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood Vlajka Yugoslav Radical Union ZBOR North America Fascism in Canada Aryan Guard Aryan Nations Canadian Association for Free Expression Canadian Union of Fascists Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform Heritage Front Parti national social chrétien Fascism in the United States American Front American Nazi Party Creativity Fascist League of North America German American Bund Goyim Defense League Hammerskins Identity Evropa LaRouche movement League of the South National Alliance (United States) National Renaissance Party Nationalist Social Club-131 National Socialist Legion National Socialist Liberation Front National Socialist Movement National States' Rights Party National Vanguard Nationalist Front (United States) The Order Patriot Front Proud Boys Rise Above Movement Silver Legion of America Christian Party (United States, 1930s) Third Klan Traditionalist Worker Party Vanguard America Volksfront White Aryan Resistance Wotansvolk Revolutionary Mexicanist Action Mexican Democratic Party Mexican Fascist Party National Pro Patria Party National Synarchist Union Nationalist Front of Mexico Order of Nine Angles Oceania Action Zealandia Antipodean Resistance Australia First Movement Australia First Party Australian Defence League Australian National Socialist Party Centre Party Lads Society National Action (Australia) National Socialist Network National Socialist Party of Australia Progressive Nationalist Party Reclaim Australia True Blue Crew United Patriots Front South America Agrarian Labor Party Argentine Anticommunist Alliance Argentine Fascist Party Argentine Nationalist Action Argentine Patriotic League Bolivian Socialist Falange Brazilian Integralism Brazilian Integralist Action Brazilian Integralist Front Falangism in Latin America Female Peronist Party Iron Guard (Argentina) Nacionalismo National Fascist Party (Argentina) National Fascist Union Nationalist Liberation Alliance National Liberation Movement National Socialist Movement of Chile National Universitary Concentration New Triumph Party Patriot Front (Argentina) Popular Dignity Popular Freedom Alliance Popular Representation Party Popular Socialist Vanguard Republican League La Resistencia Dios, Patria y Familia Revolutionary Union Tacuara Nationalist Movement People Australia Campbell (Eric) Campbell (Graeme) Cottrell Groot Mills Saleam Austria Dollfuss Miklas Pfrimer Planetta Schuschnigg Seyss-Inquart Starhemberg Belgium Daye Declercq Degrelle Denis Elias Eriksson Hermans Lagrou Poulet Severen Streel van de Wiele Croatia Boban Francetić Kraljević Kvaternik Luburić Pavelić Pavičić Rover Servatzy Finland Helanen Isotalo Kalsta Konkka Kosola Orko Simojoki Somersalo Törni Varjonen France Augier Bardèche Benoist-Méchin Béraud Brasillach Bucard Châteaubriant Déat Déroulède Dior Doriot La Rochelle Lagardelle Laval Pétain Rebatet Myatt Valois Vial Germany Abetz Andrae Baeumler Berchtold Berger Best Brunner Bühler Darré Falkenhausen Hocke Feder Forster Frank Franz V Gesche Goebbels Göring Graf Greiser Günther Hanke Heiden Hess Heydrich Himmler Hitler Klintzsch Kuhn Kühnen Ludendorff Maurice Müller Niekisch Ploetz Rahn Reitsch Remer Renthe-Fink Ribbentrop Rieger Rosenberg Schmitt Schreck Skorzeny Strasser (Gregor) Strasser (Otto) Streicher Terboven Thadden Krosigk Zündel Greece Dragoumis Kasidiaris Koryzis Lagos Michaloliakos Papadopoulos India Advani Bose Godse Golwalkar Hedgewar Modi Mukherjee Savarkar Vajpayee Iran Forouhar Kashani Monshizadeh Pezeshkpour Teymourtash Israel Ahimeir Ben-Ari Ben-Gvir Eldad Eliyahu Goldstein Gopstein Greenberg Ha'ivri Heruti Kahane Marzel Natan-Zada Stern Yeivin Italy Acerbo Alfieri Ambris D'Annunzio Azara Badoglio Balbo Torrente Ballester Bastianini Bianchi Boni Bono Boselli Bottai Ciano (Costanzo) Ciano (Galeazzo) Cogni Corradini Evola Freda Gentile Giuriati Gozi Grandi Graziani Guidi Malaparte Marinetti Michels Morgagni Mussolini Olivetti Panunzio Papini Pavolini Rauti Ricci Ridruejo Rocco Rossoni Sarfatti Soffici Spirito Volpi Japan Akao Araki Chō Hashimoto Honjō Kita Kodama Matsuoka Nonaka Ōkawa Sasakawa Romania Antonescu Bacaloglu Codreanu Crainic Cuza Gigurtu Goga Manoilescu Moța Ogoranu Sima Russia Ayo Astroŭski Barkashov Borovikov Dugin Dugina Ilyin Kaminski Kuryokhin Letov Limonov Martsinkevich Milchakov Oktan Prilepin Prokhanov Rodzaevsky Stojadinović Zhirinovsky Spain Arrese Bau Nolla Bilbao Eguía Carrero Blanco Fernández-Cuesta Franco Franco y Polo Giménez Caballero Primo de Rivera Ramos Sánchez Mazas Serrano Suñer Ukraine Bandera Biletsky Dontsov Gubarev Klyachkivsky Lebed Rebet Samchuk Shukhevych Stetsko Tyahnybok Vitrenko United Kingdom Beckett Chamberlain Chesterton Griffin Jordan Leese Mosley (Diana) Mosley (Oswald) Pankhurst Pearson Ramsay Southgate Tyndall Wellesley United States Abascal Anglin Auernheimer Biggs Black Butler Carto Collins Dilling Duke Enoch Frankhouser Fuentes Garza Graves Heimbach Hall Invictus Jones Joyce Kessler Lane LaRouche Lindbergh MacDonald Mason Metzger Miller Mills Minadeo Mullins Nordean Patsalos Pelley Pierce Pound Rockwell Rubin Smith Spencer Strom Tarrio Thomson Trump Vonsyatsky Yockey Other Arana Osorio Arcand D'Aubuisson Bahçeli Blythe Bushati Caetano Carrasco Castillo Armas Celmiņš Cerro Clausen Coughlin Devi O'Duffy Ďurčanský Frashëri al-Gaylani Genoud Gömbös Gustloff Hácha Hamidov Hamsun Hlinka al-Husayni al-Husseini Lee Linderman Ljotić Lugones Lukov Mach Madero Martínez Merlika-Kruja Noreika Piasecki Perón Phibunsongkhram Preto Puyi Quisling Ramírez Rhee Riva-Agüero y Osma Rupnik Saadeh Salgado Sayigh Šešelj Szálasi Terre'Blanche Tiso Tsankov Vikernes Wang Weinstein Works Literature 1776 Returns La Conquista del Estado The Culture of Critique Defiance Did Six Million Really Die? The Doctrine of Fascism Fascist Manifesto For My Legionaries The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia The Fourth Political Theory Hitlers Zweites Buch Hunter Impeachment of Man Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus Kokutairon and Pure Socialism The Last Will of a Russian Fascist Manifesto of Race Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals Mein Kampf My Autobiography My Life The Myth of the Twentieth Century OPROP! Our Race Will Rule Undisputed Over The World Protestantische Rompilger A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century Siege The Turner Diaries Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews A Warning to the Hindus Who Are the Mind Benders? Periodicals Action Ajan Suunta L'Alba El Alcázar The American Review Der Angriff Arriba The Blackshirt La Conquista del Estado The Daily Stormer Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Das Deutsche Mädel La Difesa della Razza Eleftheros Kosmos The European Fashist Fashizmi La France au travail Fritt Folk Fronten Gândirea Gioventù Fascista Golden Dawn Hamaas Hrvatski Domobran Je suis partout Kangura Kansallissosialisti Limonka Masada2000 Münchener Beobachter Nash Put' Nástup Nation Europa Neue Anthropologie Neues Volk Het Nieuwe Volk Norsk-Tysk Tidsskrift Novopress Norsk-Tysk Tidsskrift Organiser Panchjanya Panzerbär Parole der Woche Le Pays Réel Der Pimpf Il Popolo d'Italia Das Reich Revue d'histoire du fascisme Das Schwarze Korps Sfarmă-Piatră Signal Siniristi Spearhead Der Stürmer Türkische Post Der Umbruch Vairas Vlajka Volk en Staat Völkischer Beobachter Die Wehrmacht Wochenspruch der NSDAP Film L'Armata Azzurra Bengasi Condottieri The Daughter of the Samurai Erbkrank Europa: The Last Battle The Great Appeal The Old Guard Raza Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal Der Sieg des Glaubens The Siege of the Alcazar Lo squadrone bianco Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht Triumph of the Will Other Allach Ethnic Cleansing Related topics Art of the Third Reich Fascist architecture Heroic realism Hindutva pop Nazi architecture Nazism and cinema Organizations Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise Quadrumvirs Activist Adelaide Institute Agrarian Trade Union Federation The Britons Casuals United DeVlag European Social Movement Finnish Realm Union Francisco Franco National Foundation Friends of New Germany German American Bund GRECE The Link Mladorossi National Party of Europe National Policy Institute National Popular Consciousness People's Party Our Slovakia Popular Force Party Republic (Slovakia) Resistance Records Right Club Russian Fascist Organization Youth Adler und Falke Albanian Lictor Youth Arab Lictor Youth Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha Blue-and-Blacks Ethiopian Lictor Youth Fascist Union of Youth Frente de Juventudes Al-Futuwwa Gioventù Italiana del Littorio Great Japan Youth Party Hitler Youth Faith and Beauty Society Deutsches Jungvolk Jungmädelbund League of German Girls Jeunesse Populaire Française Juventudes de Acción Popular Korean National Youth Association Levente Mocidade Portuguesa Nationale Jeugdstorm National League of Sweden National Socialist Liberation Front National Youth (Sweden) National Youth (Italy) National Youth Alliance National Youth Organisation (Greece) Opera Nazionale Balilla Österreichisches Jungvolk Patriotic/Eureka Youth League Union of Fascist Little Ones Union of Young Fascists – Vanguard (boys) Union of Young Fascists – Vanguard (girls) Ustaše Youth Wiking-Jugend Youth Front Paramilitary and terrorist Abhinav Bharat Albanian Fascist Militia Atomwaffen Division Azov Brigade Bajrang Dal The Base Battle Organization of Russian Nationalists Black Brigades Black Legion Blackshirts Blueshirts (Canada) Blueshirts (Ireland) Column 88 Combat Terrorist Organization Confederation of the Nation Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar Croatian Defence Forces Croatian National Resistance Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood Bugojno group Einsatzgruppen Fasci di Azione Rivoluzionaria Falange Armata Falange Militia FEAR Flemish Guard Flemish Legion Frontbann Gold Shirts Hilfspolizei Hitler Youth Greenshirts (Romania) Greyshirts Heimwehr Hirden Hlinka Guard Hungarian National Defence Association Interbrigades Iron Wolf Jewish Defense League Jewish Defense Organization Kataeb Regulatory Forces Lăncieri Legion Wasa Lehava Lehi Levente Makapili Mano Blanca National Republican Guard National Socialism / White Power New Guard The Order Ostmärkische Sturmscharen Rodobrana Russian Imperial Movement Russian National Unity (2000) S14 Schutzstaffel Serbian Volunteer Corps Sicarii Sich Battalion Silver Shirts Sturmabteilung Sudetendeutsches Freikorps Terror Against Terror Third Klan Ukrainian Insurgent Army Ukrainian People's Militsiya Ustaše Militia Volkssport Walloon Guard Walloon Legion Waffen-SS Wagner Group Rusich Group Weerbaarheidsafdeling Werwolf Westland New Post Yokusan Sonendan Youth Front Student Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Avanguardia Giovanile Fascista Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas German Student Union National Socialist German Students' League Sindicato Español Universitario Student Action International Axis powers NSDAP/AO ODESSA History 1900s Herero and Nama genocide and the Holocaust 1910s Arditi Fascio Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria Armenian genocide and the Holocaust 1920s March on Rome Corfu incident Acerbo Law Beer Hall Putsch Aventine Secession Italian economic battles Le Faisceau 28 May 1926 coup d'état Libyan genocide 1930s March of the Iron Will November 1932 German federal election March 1933 German federal election Enabling Act Austrian Civil War July Putsch 1934 Montreux Fascist conference Romani Holocaust 4th of August Regime Anti-Comintern Pact Spanish Civil War 1940s World War II Nazi crimes against the Polish nation The Holocaust Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia End in Italy Nuremberg Trials Tokyo Trials Lists Anti-fascists Books about Hitler British fascist parties Fascist movements by country (A-F G-M N-T U-Z) Nazi ideologues Nazi leaders Secretaries of Italian fascist parties Speeches by Hitler SS personnel Related topics Authoritarian conservatism Chiangism Francoism Khomeinism Maurrassisme Pinochetism Putinism Ziaism Alt-right Alt-lite Alt-right pipeline Alt-tech Identitarian movement Anti-fascism Berlusconism Conservative Revolution Criticism of fascism Europe a Nation Fascist (epithet) Fascist mysticism Feudal fascism F-scale (personality test) Garveyism Germanisation of Poles during the Partitions Italianization of South Tyrol Japanization Morenazi Neosocialism Para/semi-fascism Post-fascism Proto-fascism Red fascism Red–green–brown alliance Roman salute Sansepolcrismo Scientific racism Aryanism Nordicism Social fascism Sorelianism Synarchism Szeged Idea Trumpism Donald Trump and fascism Völkisch movement Women in Nazi Germany Category v t e Nazism Organisation Ahnenerbe Artaman League Geheime Staatspolizei Deutscher Fichte-Bund Deutsches Jungvolk Franz Eher Nachfolger Hitler Youth League of German Girls Organisation Todt NSDÄB NSDStB NSRL NSFK NSKK NSF Nazi media organizations Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte Neues Volk NS-Frauen-Warte Das Reich Das Schwarze Korps Nazi Party Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Sturmabteilung (SA) Schutzstaffel (SS) SS Gefolge Waffen-SS History Early timeline National Socialist Program Hitler's rise to power Machtergreifung Gleichschaltung German rearmament Nazi Germany Kirchenkampf Adolf Hitler's cult of personality Enabling Act of 1933 Night of the Long Knives Nuremberg rallies Nuremberg Laws Anti-Comintern Pact Kristallnacht Anschluss World War II The Holocaust 1938–1939 German expedition to Tibet Tripartite Pact Denazification Nuremberg trials Final solution Concentration camps Deportations Doctors' Trial Extermination camps Genocide Ghettos Human experimentation Labour camps Pogroms Racial segregation Ideology Aestheticization of politics Anti-communism Anti-intellectualism Anti-liberalism Anti-pacifism Blood and soil Chauvinism Class collaboration Conspiracism Dolchstoßlegende "International Jewry" Judeo-Bolshevism Corporatism Cult of personality Dictatorship Führerprinzip Direct action Economic interventionism Eugenics Geopolitik Heimat Imperialism Greater Germanic Reich Heim ins Reich Lebensraum Pan-Germanism Militarism Nationalism Ethno Racial Palingenetic Revolutionary Ultra New Man New Order One-party state Populism Propaganda Prussianism Racism Antisemitism Anti-Slavic sentiment Aryan race Aryanism Master race Nordicism Nordic Indo-Germanic people Renordification Rassenschande Untermenschen Völkisch equality Völkisch movement Reactionary modernism Romanticism Social Darwinism Social interventionism Social order State capitalism Syncretism Totalitarianism Volksgemeinschaft Volk ohne Raum Volkskörper Politicians Bierbaumer Bloem Bormann Daluege Dönitz Drexler Eichmann Esser Fischer Frank Frick Hess Heydrich Himmler Hitler Goebbels Göring Keller Lammers Lutze Mitford von Neurath Quisling von Ribbentrop Röhm Schacht von Schirach Scholtz-Klink Seldte Seyss-Inquart Speer Strasser (Gregor) Strasser (Otto) Streicher Ideologues Pre-Machtergreifung Arndt Burnouf Chamberlain Drumont Eckart Fritsch de Gobineau Grant von Liebenfels von List Löns Lueger Marr Nietzsche (Contentious) Ratzel Riehl Ruskin Wagner Post-Machtergreifung Anacker Baeumler Bergmann Berndt Darré Eggers Eichrodt Feder Ford Grimm Günther Hauer Haushofer Heidegger (Contentious) Hentschel Hoche al-Husseini Jung Krannhals Kriek Lindbergh Müller Plenge Rahn Rosenberg Saadeh Schäfer Schmalenbach Schmitt (Contentious) von Sebottendorf Schwarz Stapel Wirsing Zimmermann Atrocities and war crimes Action T4 Nazi concentration camps Extermination camp Final Solution Human experimentation Romani genocide Outside Germany Americas Brazil Chile Europe Greece Sweden Parties American Nazi Party Arrow Cross Party (Hungary) German American Bund German National Movement in Liechtenstein Nasjonal Samling (Norway) National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands National Socialist Movement of Chile National Socialist Movement (United States) National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark Nordic Resistance Movement Ossewabrandwag (South Africa) SUMKA (Iran) Syrian Social Nationalist Party Tsagaan Khas (Mongolia) World Union of National Socialists Lists Bibliography of Adolf Hitler Nazi ideologues NSDAP leaders and officials Nazi Party members Last surviving war crime suspects Party ideologues Speeches given by Adolf Hitler SS personnel Role and impact in German society The Wehrmacht Economy Nobility Related topics Anti-Bolshevist League Art Architecture Cinema Atsızism "Beefsteak Nazi" Economy Denordification Renordification Glossary Drang nach Osten Generalplan Ost German American Bund Horst-Wessel-Lied Political views of Adolf Hitler Nazi propaganda and the United Kingdom Racial theories Sorelianism Strasserism Women Category v t e Time Persons of the Year 1927–1950 Charles Lindbergh (1927) Walter Chrysler (1928) Owen D. Young (1929) Mohandas Gandhi (1930) Pierre Laval (1931) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932) Hugh S. Johnson (1933) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934) Haile Selassie (1935) Wallis Simpson (1936) Chiang Kai-shek / Soong Mei-ling (1937) Adolf Hitler (1938) Joseph Stalin (1939) Winston Churchill (1940) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941) Joseph Stalin (1942) George Marshall (1943) Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944) Harry S. Truman (1945) James F. Byrnes (1946) George Marshall (1947) Harry S. Truman (1948) Winston Churchill (1949) The American Fighting-Man (1950) 1951–1975 Mohammed Mosaddeq (1951) Elizabeth II (1952) Konrad Adenauer (1953) John Foster Dulles (1954) Harlow Curtice (1955) Hungarian Freedom Fighters (1956) Nikita Khrushchev (1957) Charles de Gaulle (1958) Dwight D. Eisenhower (1959) U.S. Scientists: George Beadle / Charles Draper / John Enders / Donald A. Glaser / Joshua Lederberg / Willard Libby / Linus Pauling / Edward Purcell / Isidor Rabi / Emilio Segrè / William Shockley / Edward Teller / Charles Townes / James Van Allen / Robert Woodward (1960) John F. Kennedy (1961) Pope John XXIII (1962) Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) Lyndon B. Johnson (1964) William Westmoreland (1965) The Generation Twenty-Five and Under (1966) Lyndon B. Johnson (1967) The Apollo 8 Astronauts: William Anders / Frank Borman / Jim Lovell (1968) The Middle Americans (1969) Willy Brandt (1970) Richard Nixon (1971) Henry Kissinger / Richard Nixon (1972) John Sirica (1973) King Faisal (1974) American Women: Susan Brownmiller / Kathleen Byerly / Alison Cheek / Jill Conway / Betty Ford / Ella Grasso / Carla Hills / Barbara Jordan / Billie Jean King / Susie Sharp / Carol Sutton / Addie Wyatt (1975) 1976–2000 Jimmy Carter (1976) Anwar Sadat (1977) Deng Xiaoping (1978) Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) Ronald Reagan (1980) Lech Wałęsa (1981) The Computer (1982) Ronald Reagan / Yuri Andropov (1983) Peter Ueberroth (1984) Deng Xiaoping (1985) Corazon Aquino (1986) Mikhail Gorbachev (1987) The Endangered Earth (1988) Mikhail Gorbachev (1989) George H. W. Bush (1990) Ted Turner (1991) Bill Clinton (1992) The Peacemakers: Yasser Arafat / F. W. de Klerk / Nelson Mandela / Yitzhak Rabin (1993) Pope John Paul II (1994) Newt Gingrich (1995) David Ho (1996) Andrew Grove (1997) Bill Clinton / Ken Starr (1998) Jeff Bezos (1999) George W. Bush (2000) 2001–present Rudolph Giuliani (2001) The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper / Coleen Rowley / Sherron Watkins (2002) The American Soldier (2003) George W. Bush (2004) The Good Samaritans: Bono / Bill Gates / Melinda Gates (2005) You (2006) Vladimir Putin (2007) Barack Obama (2008) Ben Bernanke (2009) Mark Zuckerberg (2010) The Protester (2011) Barack Obama (2012) Pope Francis (2013) Ebola Fighters: Dr. Jerry Brown / Dr. Kent Brantly / Ella Watson-Stryker / Foday Gollah / Salome Karwah (2014) Angela Merkel (2015) Donald Trump (2016) The Silence Breakers (2017) The Guardians: Jamal Khashoggi / Maria Ressa / Wa Lone / Kyaw Soe Oo / Staff of The Capital (2018) Greta Thunberg (2019) Joe Biden / Kamala Harris (2020) Elon Musk (2021) Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Spirit of Ukraine (2022) Taylor Swift (2023) Donald Trump (2024) v t e The Holocaust By territory Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czechoslovakia Bohemia and Moravia Slovakia Sudetenland Denmark Estonia France Germany Greece Bulgarian-occupied Greece Hungary Italy and colonies Libya Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Soviet Union Belarus Russia Ukraine Yugoslavia Croatia Serbia Overview Evidence and documentation Contemporary knowledge Hidden children Timeline Response International response Japan Philippines Portugal Spain Sweden Turkey United States Vatican Rescue of Jews by Catholics by Poles Righteous Among the Nations Camps and ghettos Concentration Auschwitz Bergen-Belsen Buchenwald Dachau Flossenbürg Gross-Rosen Herzogenbusch Hinzert Kaiserwald Kauen Kraków-Płaszów Majdanek Mauthausen and Gusen Mittelbau-Dora Natzweiler-Struthof Neuengamme Ravensbrück Sachsenhausen Stutthof Vaivara Warsaw Extermination Auschwitz II-Birkenau Belzec Chełmno Majdanek Sobibor Treblinka Transit be Breendonk Mechelen fr Gurs Drancy it Bolzano Risiera di San Sabba nl Amersfoort Schoorl Westerbork sk Sereď Methods Einsatzgruppen Gas van Gas chamber Extermination through labour Human experimentation Death marches Nazi units SS-Totenkopfverbände Concentration Camps Inspectorate Politische Abteilung Sanitätswesen Ghettos (list) Poland Białystok Kraków Łódź Lublin Lwów Radom Warsaw Elsewhere Budapest Kovno Minsk Riga Theresienstadt Vilna Judenrat Jewish Ghetto Police Reich Association of Jews in Germany Ústredňa Židov Victims Jews Roundups Izieu Marseille Vel' d'Hiv Pogroms Kristallnacht Bucharest Dorohoi Iași 1941 pogroms in eastern Poland Jedwabne Lviv in Lithuania Kaunas "Final Solution" Wannsee Conference Operation Reinhard Holocaust trains Mass executions Einsatzgruppen Babi Yar Harvest Festival Kamianets-Podilskyi Maly Trostenets Ninth Fort Odesa Piaśnica Ponary Rumbula Resistance Jewish partisans Bielski partisans Ghetto uprisings Warsaw Białystok Częstochowa Rescue Aid and Rescue Committee Attack on the twentieth convoy Kastner train Le Chambon-sur-Lignon Danish underground Working Group Żegota Others Soviet POWs Soviet urban residents Civilians targeted during anti-partisan warfare People with disabilities Romani people Polish leaders and intellectuals Homosexuals Jehovah's Witnesses Responsibility List of major perpetrators of the Holocaust Organizations Nazi Party Schutzstaffel (SS) Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) Referat IV B4 Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) Waffen-SS Wehrmacht Units Einsatzgruppen Police Regiments Order Police battalions Collaborators Arajs Kommando Lithuanian Security Police Nederlandsche SS Rollkommando Hamann Special Brigades Topf and Sons Trawnikis Ukrainian Auxiliary Police Ypatingasis būrys Early elements Aftermath Remembrance Early elements Nazi racial policy Nazi eugenics Nuremberg Laws Haavara Agreement Hitler's prophecy Jewish war conspiracy theory Jewish emigration Kindertransport Madagascar Plan Nisko Plan Forced euthanasia (Action T4) Aftermath Depopulated shtetls Holocaust survivors Sh'erit ha-Pletah Bricha List Postwar violence Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law Nuremberg trials Eichmann trial Holocaust restitution Reparations Agreement Holocaust denial trivialization History and memory Academia Books and other resources Days of remembrance Education Films Lessons Memorials and museums Uniqueness Armenian genocide and the Holocaust Humor Righteous Among the Nations Yad Vashem Yizkor books "Never again" v t e People killed or wounded in the 20 July plot Wounded Heinz Assmann Karl Bodenschatz Heinrich Borgmann Heinz Buchholz Walther Buhle Herbert Büchs Hermann Fegelein Otto Günsche Adolf Heusinger Adolf Hitler Alfred Jodl Wilhelm Keitel Walter Scherff Nicolaus von Below Ernst John von Freyend Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer Franz von Sonnleithner Hans-Erich Voss Heinz Waizenegger Walter Warlimont Killed Heinz Berger Heinz Brandt Günther Korten Rudolf Schmundt