Few names from history inspire such immediate and emphatic revulsion as that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. His hands are stained with the blood of millions killed in the devastation of the Second World War and the horror of the Holocaust. But Hitler was not born a brutal tyrant, he became one. Explore Hitler's life and discover the road that led to destruction.

1. Adolf Hitler: Evil’s greatest Emissary
Presentation by:
Pattan Imran Khan
NIIT University

2. Age of extremes
 Few names from history inspire such immediate and
emphatic revulsion as that of Nazi leader Adolf
Hitler
 His hands are stained with the blood of millions killed
in the devastation of the Second World War and the
horror of the Holocaust
 But Hitler was not born a brutal tyrant, he became
one.

3. Birth and childhood
Apr1889
 Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April in the small Austrian
town of Braunau am Inn, in Upper Austria on the
Austrian-German border
 His father, Alois, was a customs official while his
mother, Klara, came from a poor peasant family
 At primary school Hitler was a clever, popular child
 At secondary school he withdrew psychologically,
preferring to re-enact battles from wars than study

4.  He left school with no qualifications at 16.
Adolf Hitler, pictured as a child circa 1889

5. Feb 1908
Down and out in Vienna
 Hitler dreamt of a career as an artist. His father had
rejected the idea but after he died in 1903 Hitler
tried to make his dream a reality
 He applied to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts but
was promptly rejected in October 1907
 Shortly after, Hitler's beloved mother died. He moved
to Vienna and graved out a precarious existence
sleeping in hostels and painting postcards.

6.  Here he began to develop many of the views which
would later characterize his ideology and desire to
unite Germany and Austria
Adolf Hitler's drawing of the Austrian Parliament Building, Vienna

7. Aug 1914
Fightingfor theFatherland
 Hitler hated the multi-ethnic composition of Austria's
ruling Habsburg Empire. Determined to avoid military
service, he moved to Munich in 1913.
 Hitler was keen to prove his loyalty to Germany. In
August 1914 the world plunged into a war unlike any
seen before. Hitler quickly enlisted.
 Serving in both France and Belgium, he was twice
decorated for bravery.

8.  In 1916, Hitler was wounded at the Somme, one of the bloodiest
battles of the war. Recovering in Germany, he affected a distinctive
toothbrush moustache.
Hitler and his distinctive toothbrush moustache

9. Nov1918
'Stabbed in the back'
 Hitler was wounded for a second time following a
British gas attack. While his recovering, the
unthinkable happened – Germany surrendered.
 Before the surrender, facing serious discontent at
home and the prospect of defeat at the front,
Germany's High Command sought to shift the
blame.

10.  The majority parties in the Reichstag were handed a
poisoned chalice. They were given more power but
implicated in the impending defeat.
 Hitler was enraged by what he saw as the betrayal
of an undefeated German Army by Jews and
socialists at home. He resolved to go into politics.

11. Jun 1919
Treaty of Versailles
Protests in Germany against the Treaty of Versailles
 When the Treaty of Versailles was signed in summer 1919,
Germany was forced to accept sole responsibility for the
war.

12.  Just as damaging, the peace obliged Germany to
pay large amounts in reparations. The huge loss of
territory it also dictated came as a devastating
blow. Hitler bitterly resented it.
 Defeat and then humiliation at Versailles challenged
his whole sense of worth
 Still in the army, Hitler was sent to report on an
emerging far-right group, the German Workers' Party
(later renamed the Nazi Party). Finding he agreed
with their nationalist, anti-Semitic beliefs, he joined.

13. Jul 1921
Der Fuhrer
 Hitler’s oratory skills helped him rise quickly through the ranks
of his new party. In February he spoke before a crowd of nearly
6,000 in Munich.
Hitler giving a speech during his election campaign

14. Nov1923
Beer HallPutsch
 Germany’s government was on the brink of
collapse. Hyperinflation saw the price of a loaf of
bread rise from 250 marks to 200 billion by
November.
 Hitler sought to start a revolution
 Hitler led 3,000 men onto the streets. But the police
were waiting. In the ensuing violence, 16 Nazis and 3
policemen died. Hitler was arrested and sentenced
to five years in prison for treason.

15. Jul 1925
Mein Kampf
 Hitler served just nine months of his sentence in the
Bavarian fortress of Landsberg am Lech. Here he
wrote Mein Kampf, defining his political vision.
The 1938 edition of Hitler's Mein Kampf

16.  For him, the state was not an economic entity but
racial
 He declared the superiority of a white Aryan race, with
particular vitriol reserved for the Jews he viewed as
"parasites"
 Their elimination, he said, "must necessarily be a
bloody process“
 Mein Kampf outlined the central tenets of Germany
under Nazi control – military expansion, elimination of
"impure" races and dictatorial authoritarianism
 After its publication in July 1925, the book saw more
exposure for Hitler’s views.

17. Oct1929
WallStreetCrash
 After the failure of his revolution Hitler looked to the
ballot box. But despite his own rising profile, in 1928
the Nazis won just 2.6% of the vote.
 When the American stock exchange collapsed, the
foreign loans on which Germany's economic
recovery relied were called in
 Unemployment rose to six million and parties on
both the extreme left and right saw support
skyrocket

18.  At the same time, Hitler first met a 17-year-old
German Catholic girl called Eva Braun.
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun

19. Oct1929
Leader of Germany
 Now a German citizen, Hitler led the Nazis to become
the largest party in Germany with over 37% of the
popular vote in the elections of July 1932
 German President von Hindenburg's concern at
growing Communist support persuaded him to give
Hitler the post of Chancellor in January
 Political parties, organizations and unions unassociated
with the Nazis were soon disbanded. But Hitler still
needed the support of the army to fulfill the vision he
had outlined in Mein Kampf.

20. Jun 1934
The Night of the LongKnives
 Army leaders were wary of the paramilitaries who
had helped Hitler to power. He allayed those
concerns ruthlessly, tightening his own grip on
power.
 The leader of the Sturmabteilung(SA), Ernst Rohm,
was among hundreds assassinated in one night as
Hitler purged his party

21.  He could not tolerate opposition to his plans to
suppress workers' rights and make Germany ready
for war
 The army, however, approved and after President
Hindenburg died in August, they supported Hitler's
elevation to Führer. Hitler was now in total control.
Adolf Hitler greets SA leader Ernst Rohm shortly before the latter's assassination

22. Sep1935
NurembergLaws
 Since 1933 the Nazis had tried to exclude Jews and
other 'undesirables' from public life. In 1935 a new
phase began – enforced biological segregation.
 At the annual Nuremberg rally Hitler announced
laws denying Jewish people citizenship and
prohibiting marriage with people of "German or
related blood".

23. Sep1938
Appeasement and expansion
 With his vision under way domestically, Hitler set his
sights beyond Germany's borders. Lebensraum –
territorial expansion – was next on his agenda.
 In March Hitler triumphantly led Nazi troops into
Austria, achieving his goal of unifying the country of
his birth and the country he ruled
 His next target was the Sudetenland in
Czechoslovakia. Nazi troops marched into
Czechoslovakia and took the Sudetenland.

24. Sep1939
The gambler
 Spurred by his success at Munich, Hitler looked east to
Poland. But first he had to make a deal with Stalin's
USSR.
 Hitler was willing to set aside his hatred of Communism
for strategic gain. The two powers agreed the Nazi-
Soviet non-aggression pact in late August.
 Hitler believed his path was clear and on 1 September
the invasion of Poland began. It was a gamble – the
German Army was not yet at full strength.

25.  But Hitler was confident Britain and France would not
go Poland's aid any more than they had for Austria
or Czechoslovakia.
 He was wrong. Britain and France declared war on 3
September, which lead to World War II.

26. Jun 1940
Hitler's revenge
 Though he'd lost the gamble, Hitler was winning the
war. Poland fell quickly.
 When France surrendered on 17 June, Hitler took
revenge for the German defeat more than two
decades before
 Hitler ensured the French submission should take place
at Compiegne, in the same train carriage Germany
had been forced to sign the Armistice ending the First
World War

27.  At the scene of Germany's greatest humiliation,
Hitler now stood in triumph.
Armistice agreement in the forest of Compiegne

28. 1941
New enemies
 Despite the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler retained a staunch
hatred of Communism
 Extension of Lebensraum in the east was always his
ultimate aim
 Hitler was extremely suspicious of Stalin. He'd initially
planned to complete the subjugation of Western
Europe before turning to the Soviet Union
 When Soviet troops occupied the Baltic States, he
decided to invade. Hitler was convinced the Red Army
could be defeated in a matter of months.

29.  He was wrong. He compounded his error by
declaring war on another powerful enemy, the US.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and American President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1943

30. Feb 1943
A wrong turn
 As the German invasion of the USSR foundered, Hitler
assumed day-to-day operational command of the
army, convinced only he could succeed
 Hitler was now directing the entire army from his
headquarters, thousands of miles away. In spring 1942
he was convinced the Soviets would be defeated if his
army followed his plan to the letter.
 He was proven wrong at Stalingrad. Freezing, starving
and hopelessly outnumbered, German forces could
not hold the city.

31.  "Surrender is forbidden," Hitler said
 His commanders on the ground chose to ignore the
order. For the first time Hitler faced sustained
personal criticism because of the defeat.
Adolf Hitler planning the offensive on Stalingrad

32. Jun 1944
Asleep at the wheel
 Hitler's intransigence had left German forces in
retreat in the east. Now, his mistrust and refusal to
delegate cost them dearly in the west.
 When Allied troops landed on French soil on D-Day,
Hitler was asleep in his Eagle's Nest retreat
 No significant decisions could be taken without his
authorization. Crucial German panzer divisions
which may have delayed the Allied invasion could
not be moved until Hitler woke up.

33.  The landings were a success.
 Germany was now fighting and losing a war on two
fronts.
 Yet Hitler had met the news with enthusiasm,
believing his forces could finally take the US and
Britain out of the war.

34. Jul 1944
A weakeninggrip
 As Germany's military situation deteriorated, opposition
to Hitler grew among the army elite. Many of his
previously loyal commanders wanted him dead.
 But on 20 July an opportunity came at last. Hitler was
meeting with top military aides at the Wolf's Lair field
headquarters.
 A senior army officer, Lt Col Claus von Stauffenberg,
left a bomb in a briefcase in the conference room.
 At 12.42 pm it went off. A stenographer and three
officers died.

35.  Hitler was lucky to escape with only minor injuries,
shielded from the full force of the blast by an oak
table.
The conference room where Hitler had been sitting was destroyed by
Stauffenberg's bomb

36. Apr1945
Defeatand death
 As Soviet troops closed in on his bunker in Berlin,
Hitler accepted the inevitability of his defeat. He set
into action his plan to take his own life.
 Hours beforehand, he married Eva Braun, who had
remained by his side for 11 years. They were wed
early on the morning of 29 April.
 The next day, at a little after 3.30 pm, they bit into
thin glass vials of cyanide. Hitler then shot himself
through the head.

37.  The man responsible for untold suffering, who had
almost single-handedly brought the world to the
very brink of destruction, was dead.
Red Army soldiers raise the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin on 30 April

38. Front page of the U.S. Armed Forces newspaper, Stars and Stripes, 2 may 1945

39. Impact of war started by Hitler
 Estimates for the total casualties of the war vary,
because many deaths went unrecorded
 Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the
war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million
civilians
 Many civilians died because of disease, starvation,
massacres, bombing and deliberate genocide

40. The Axis Powers

41. References
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zsmm6sg
 http://history1900s.about.com/cs/hitleradolf/p/hitler.
htm
 Google Images