Hitler grew up in Austria. His mother developed terminal breast cancer and had a Jewish doctor who served the poor. After an operation and excruciatingly painful and expensive treatments with a dangerous drug, she died. Did he blame the Jewish Dr. for his mother’s death?

Vienna, Austria was a center of anti- Semitism, and the media's portrayal of Jews as scapegoats with stereotyped attributes did not escape Hitler's fascination. What do these words mean? Anti-Semitism Scapegoats Stereotypes

Free Corps The Free Corps was a paramilitary organization composed of vigilante war veterans who banded together to fight the growing Communist insurgency which was taking over Germany. The Free Corps crushed this insurgency. Its members formed the nucleus of the Nazi "brown-shirts" (S.A.) which served as the Nazi party's army.

After losing WWI in 1918, the German government had to pay billions of dollars as punishments for attacking other countries. The German economy collapsed, prices soared, and Germans everywhere felt desperate.

In 1923 Hitler tried to take over the government of Bavaria by force as the first step towards seizing control of Germany as a whole. Began writing Mein Kampf in jail

Adolf Hitler wept bitterly when he learned that Germany had lost the war. He promised himself that his country would never suffer such a defeat again. Hitler became deeply involved in politics. In speech after speech, he promised to make Germany great again. By 1033, this once unknown soldier was dictator of Germany.

Once released from prison, Hitler decided to seize power constitutionally rather than by force of arms. Using demagogic oratory, Hitler spoke to scores of mass audiences, calling for the German people to resist the yoke of Jews and Communists, and to create a new empire which would rule the world for 1,000 years.

Hitler blamed Germany’s economic problems on the Jews. He spread hateful theories about Jews, Gypsies, and other ethnic groups in Germany. He claimed they were inferior to, or not as good as, or not as good as, other Germans. He claimed that true Germans were a superior ethnic group and believed that this superior group deserved a larger country.

Soon after, treatment of the Jews was a major theme of Hitler's orations, and the increasing scapegoating of the Jews for inflation, political instability, unemployment, and the humiliation in the war, found a willing audience. Jews were tied to "internationalism" by Hitler. The name of the party was changed to the National Socialist German Worker's party, and the red flag with the swastika was adopted as the party symbol.

Many people did not believe Hitler’s threats, but he was deadly serious. He ordered attacks on neighboring countries and forced them under German rule. His actions led to the stat of WWII. In 1939, Great Britain, The Soviet Union, and The United States joined other nations to stop Hitler and the Nazis.

By the end of the war, Europe was in ruins. People around the world learned that the Germans had forced countless Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and others into Concentration Camps. The horrible mass murder, or genocide, of six million Jews is called, The Holocaust.

Several attempts were made on Hitler's life during the war, but none was successful. As the war appeared to be inevitably lost and his hand- picked lieutenants, seeing the futility, defied his orders, he killed himself on April 30, His long-term mistress and new bride, Eva Braun, joined him in suicide. By that time, one of his chief objectives was achieved with the annihilation of two-thirds of European Jewry.

Hitler Youth

BE CAUTIOUS OF THIS VIDEO! Holocaust Video Clips, Free Onlin