The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party leading up to World War II. adolf hitler, nazis, world war ii, wwii, propaganda, germany, reichstag fire, jews, lebesraum, mein kampf, otto von bismark, heinrich himmler, joseph geobbels, schutzstaffel, gestapo, kristallnacht, nuremberg laws, non-aggression pact, national socialist german worker's party, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, aryan, swastika

1. Hitler: The Rise of Evil
The rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany

2. Young Adolf Hitler
• Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889.
• He was a sickly child and his mother
coddled him.
• As a young man, Hitler wanted to become
an artist.
• His father was strict and violently abusive
towards him and disapproved of his
ambitions.
• In 1907, his mother died from breast
cancer which devastated him emotionally.
• Following his mother’s death, he dropped
out of high school and moved to Vienna to
pursue a career as an artist.
Klara Hitler

3. Adolf Hitler The Artist?
• Around age 18, he tried to get into the
Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
• He was rejected.
• Many people on the board of admissions
were Jewish and he blamed them for his
failure to gain entry.
• He eventually sold all his possessions and
became a homeless drifter who slept on
park benches and ate at soup kitchens
throughout Vienna (age 19).

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6. Adolf Hitler and WWI
• As WWI approached, Hitler left
Austria and joined the German army.
• Hitler was excited to fight for
Germany.
• He found a home fighting for the
“Fatherland”.
• He was a regimental messenger, not
an easy job at all.
• At his highest, he held the rank of
corporal.

7. This picture from 1914 shows Germans gathered in Munich to hear the news of the declaration of war on Russia to
begin WWI. It appears as though a young Adolf Hitler was present to cheer on the announcement.

8. Adolf Hitler The Hero
• He was awarded the
Iron Cross twice, (5 medals
overall), the highest military
honor in the German Army.
• He single handedly captured
4 French soldiers.
• He was temporarily blinded
by a gas attack towards end
of the war and even spent
time in a psychiatric hospital
to overcome “shell shock”.

9. German Loss in WW I
• Hitler was devastated when he heard the news of
the German surrender.
• He was appalled at the anti-war sentiment among
the German civilians.
• He believed there was an anti-war conspiracy that
involved the Jews and Communists.
• Also, felt that the German military did not lose the
war, but that the politicians (mostly Jews) at home
were responsible for the defeat.

10. Life after WWI
•Hitler was depressed
after WWI.
•Still in the army, he
became an undercover
agent whose job was to
root out Communists.
•Also, lectured about
the dangers of
Communism and Jews.

11. German Worker’s Party
• Hitler was sent to investigate the
German Worker’s Party meeting in
Munich in 1919.
• He went to a meeting and was
impressed with the group’s ideals.
• strongly nationalist, anti-capitalist and
anti-communist ideas, favored a strong
active government, and a "non-Jewish"
version of socialism
• He gave a speech himself and was
then asked to become a member,
which he did.

12. NAZI Party is Formed
• Hitler immediately became a leading
member in the group.
• He began to think big for the German
Worker’s Party.
• Began placing ads for meetings in anti-
Semitic newspapers.
• He also changed the name to
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German
Workers' Party) or NAZI for short.
• Within two years, the Nazi Party had grown
to 55,000 people, with 15,000 in the militia.

13. Party Platform
• Hitler drafted a platform of 25 points or
goals:
• The union of all Germans in a greater
German Reich
• A strong central government
• Revoke the Treaty of Versailles
• Revoking rights of Jews
• Citizenship determined by race.
• Aryans are considered the master
race.
• No Jews were considered German.
• Need more land for growing German
people.
Besides changing the party name,
the red flag with the SWASTIKA
was adopted as the party symbol

14. An Aryan Society
• Hitler wanted to
develop an Aryan
racial state to
dominate Europe and
possibly the world.
• Aryans were described
as “blonde hair and
blue eyed” and were
the physical ideal of
Nazi Germany.

15. Did You know?
• Hitler misunderstood what Aryan’s
were.
• Aryans are actually people of
Indian/Iranian heritage and have
dark hair, dark eyes and a darker
skin complexion.
• Also, the swastika has been used in
many cultures around the world
for thousands of years prior to the
use by the Nazis.
• In fact, it is considered a good luck
symbol in Buddhism and Hinduism.

17. Beer Hall Putsch
• October 30, 1923
• Hitler held a rally in a
Munich beer hall and
declared revolution.
• He led 2,000 men to take
over the German
government.
• It failed and Hitler was
arrested and imprisoned.

18. Trial and Prison
•At his trial (Hitler was charged with
treason), he used the opportunity to
speak about the Nazi platform and
further spread his beliefs.
•The whole nation suddenly knew who
Adolf Hitler was and what he stood for.
•He was sentenced to five years, but
actually only served about 9 months.
•When he left prison, he was ready to go
back into action again.

19. Mein Kampf
• While in prison, Hitler wrote a
book called “My Struggle”
• It sold 5 million copies and made
him rich
• Topics included: Jews were evil,
Germans were superior race,
Fűhrer principal, dislike of
Communism and Democracy and
the need to conquer Russia

20. Legal Rise to Power
• When he got out of prison, he worked
to expand the Nazi Party throughout
Germany.
• Hitler realized that the way to power
was through legal means, not through
violent overthrow of the government.
• Used popularity from failed
revolution and book to seize power
legally.
• Spoke to mass audiences about
making Germany a great nation again.

21. The Great Depression
• The Great Depression of 1929 was
exactly what Hitler and the Nazis
needed to become a legitimate
political party contender.
• Before the depression, Hitler and the
Nazis were considered too extreme
for most citizens.
• However, the Weimar was struggling
and this gave Hitler a chance to gain
followers.
• Many people turned towards the Hitler
and the Nazis who promised to pull
the nation out of the depression.

22. Appeal of Hitler
• Hitler was a war hero and had a celebrity status since his failed
overthrow of the government and ensuing book.
• He was also an excellent public speaker.
• During the Great Depression, people looked for alternatives and
often sided with radicals like Hitler.
• Amidst the German economic depression, Hitler promised a
return to glory.
• He promised the rich industrialists that he would end any
communist threat in Germany.
• Constantly blamed Jews for Germany’s problems, not the
German people.

23. Rise of the Nazis
• Germany’s economic problems
helped the rise of the Nazi Party.
• By 1929, the Nazis had a national
party organization, and by 1931,
it was the largest political party
in the Reichstag, or German
parliament.
• The Nazis made up of 230
members of the 600 in the
Reichstag.

24. Strong Arm Tactics
• Like Mussolini in Italy, Hitler creates a
paramilitary organization known as the
“Brownshirts” or SA (aka Stormtroopers).
• They were identifiable by their uniforms
consisting of brown shirts, pants and boots.
• The SA was used to put down opposition
parties.
• They intimidated, threatened and beat up
Jews and anti-Nazi voters.
• Their numbers grew and by 1932, there
were 400,000 SA.

25. Hitler Becomes Chancellor
• In the presidential
election of 1932, Hitler
loses to incumbent
president Paul von
Hindenburg.
• However, Hindenburg
appoints Hitler as
Chancellor of Germany
(head of the Reichstag)
in 1933.

26. Reichstag Fire
• One night in 1933, the Reichstag building
was set on fire by a Dutch communist.
• Believing that this act of terrorism was
just the beginning of a greater
communist plot, Hitler uses this
opportunity to seize power.
• Hitler convinces Hindenburg and the
Reichstag to suspend the constitution
and give him emergency dictator
powers.
• The Reichstag agrees and votes Hitler to
be “temporary” dictator.

27. Reichstag Fire
• Despite the fire being
blamed on a
communist, it widely
believed that the Nazis
themselves set the
Reichstag on fire.
• Hitler and the Nazi
party used this “act of
terrorism” or
catastrophe to seize
more power.

28. Hitler Becomes Dictator
• Once in power, the Nazis established
control over all aspects of government.
• All political parties except the Nazis
were abolished.
• Peoples’ liberties were suspended.
• Jews were purged from the civil service,
and trade unions were dissolved.
• Concentration camps were set up for
Nazi opponents.
• The Nazis had set up the basis for a
totalitarian state.

29. The Fűhrer
•Paul Von Hindenburg dies in
1934.
•Hitler assumes both
chancellor and president
positions.
•Adopts the title Fűhrer, a
German word for leader or
one who guides.

30. Absolute Power
• Hitler had a goal in creating a
totalitarian state.
• Nazis wanted the Germans to create an
empire just as the Romans had done.
• Hitler thought there had been two
previous German empires (Reichs): the
Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne
and the German Empire of 1871 to 1918.
• Hitler called his empire the Third Reich.

31. The Nazi State
• Hitler demanded active
involvement from the German
people.
• The Nazis used economic
policies, propaganda, mass
rallies, organizations, and terror
to control the country and
further their goals.
• The Nazis also burned books that
went against their ideals.

32. Nazi Germany
• In a country of 70 million (in 1939), there was
only about 10 million registered Nazi Party
members.
• There was probably even less “active”
involvement from every Nazi member.
• Although the entire German population was not
in agreement with Hitler's plans, there was
almost no large scale objection to him or Nazi
policies.
• Most people went along with their policies
because they were either afraid or
experienced psychological “mob mentality” or
“bystander effect”.

37. Notice anything strange? Take a second look!

38. A lone man in the crowd stands, arms folded, refusing to salute. His name is August Landmesser, a German
shipyard worker who was later arrested for breaking the law. His crime? Marrying a woman who was part Jewish.
Unfortunately, he and his wife did not survive WWII, but his act of bravery lives on.

39. The Nazi State
• Hitler put the German people
back to work through public
works projects and grants to
private construction
companies.
• One of his most ambitious
projects was the massive
rearmament program –
(rearming the military) – to
stimulate the economy.
• Unemployment dropped, and
the depression was ending.

40. Re-Arming Germany
Hitler visits a factory and is enthusiastically
greeted. Many Germans were grateful for jobs
after the misery of the depression years.

42. Defying provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany began rearming itself at a rapid rate shortly after Hitler came
to power in 1933.

43. Did You Know?
• One of Hitler’s major projects
was the completion of the
Autobahn.
• The Autobahn is the national
highway system in Germany,
famous for it’s lack of speed
limits.
• The ambitious project gave work
to over 100,000 German laborers
across the country and providing
a boost in the economy.

45. The Hitler Youth
• In setting up a totalitarian
state, the Nazis recognized
the importance of winning
young people over to their
ideas.
• The Hitler Youth, an
organization for young people
between the ages of 10 and
18, was formed in 1926 for
that purpose.

46. The Hitler Youth

48. Himmler and the SS
• Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler,
the Nazis used the Schutzstaffel (SS) or
“Guard Squadrons” to control the nation.
• Himmler was likely Hitler’s right hand man
and used the SS to terrorize the nation.
• Terror included repression, murder, and
concentration camps.
• The Waffen-SS were handpicked, elite force
of the Wehrmacht (military).
• The Gestapo-SS controlled all police forces.
• The worst were the Totenkopf-SS or
“Death’s Head Unit”, who administered the
concentration and death camps.

49. Totenkopf
Or
“Death’s
Head”

50. Propaganda In Germany
• Propaganda used by the Nazis was crucial in
acquiring and maintaining power as well as further
spreading their ideology and implementing Nazi
policies.
• Taking them to new heights was Dr. Joseph
Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda.
• The Nazis used mass media such as newspapers,
magazines, radio, etc. to spread propaganda.
• Hitler’s speeches were played over the air for all
the country to hear.
• Even school textbooks were modified to fit Nazi
ideology, emphasizing pure Aryan blood and
explaining the dangers of Jews.

52. Nazi Film Division
• Joseph Goebbels understood that
motion pictures were an excellent
way to influence the masses.
• He created a special film division
in the government.
• The government had to approve
all films before being made.
• They would even finance the film
and went as far as to even select
the actors for the film.

53. Did You Know?
• The Nazis even used classic
fairy tales as part of their
propaganda machine.
• For example, the story of
Cinderella places an emphasis
on her “Aryan” purity vs. her
evil, impure stepsisters.
• Little Red Riding Hood became
a symbol of the German
people suffering at the hands
of the “Jewish” wolf.

54. Joseph Goebbels was not just the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, he was also said to be “homicidally anti-Semitic”. In 1933,
LIFE Magazine sent Alfred Eisenstaedt to photograph a League of Nations meeting. Eisenstaedt was able to capture several
photos showing the Nazi politician in a good and cheerful mood. That was until Goebbels found out that Eisenstaedt was
Jewish. The chilling picture on the right shows Goebbels reaction to this news. “He stared at me with eyes of hate.”- AE

55. Nuremburg Laws
• While in power, the Nazi Party
enacted programs against Jewish
people.
• In 1935, the Nazis passed the
“Nuremberg Laws,” which
prevented Jews from being
German citizens, forbade
marriages between Jews and
German citizens, and required
Jews to wear yellow Stars of David
and to carry identification cards
saying they were Jewish.
• The Nazis also enforced a boycott
of all Jewish owned businesses.

56. Members of the SA enforce the boycott of Jewish stores, (1933).
The sign reads, “Germans! Do not buy from Jews!”

57. Did You Know?
• The Nuremberg Laws were an attempt at
“scientific racism” incorporated by the
Nazis.
• The Nazis issued charts to explain who was
a Jew and who was not.
• The laws classified people with four German
grandparents as German, while people were
classified as Jews if they descended from three
or four Jewish grandparents.
• A person with one or two Jewish grandparents
was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of “mixed
blood”.
• These laws would also extend to gypsies,
negroes, homosexuals and any others who
posed a threat to German racial purity.

58. Kristallnacht
• On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazis
initiated a pogrom (an organized persecution of the
Jews) and burned Jewish synagogues and destroyed
thousands of Jewish businesses.
• They killed around 100 people and sent thirty
thousand Jewish men to concentration camps.
• This night was called Kristallnacht (“night of
shattered glass”).
• After Kristallnacht, Jews were barred from all
public transportation, schools, and hospitals.
• They could not own, manage, or work in a retail
store.
• At this time, Jews were encouraged to leave
Germany.

61. Expanding an Empire
• Adolf Hitler believed that Germany could
build a great civilization.
• To do this, Germany needed more land or
lebensraum (living space) to support the
German people.
• He wanted to take back lands Germany
had lost in World War I and more.
• Hitler proposed that Germany be able to
revise the unfair provisions of the Treaty
of Versailles that had ended World War I.
• At first he said he would use peaceful
means; however, the rearmament of
Germany’s military suggested otherwise.

62. The German Path to War
• In March of 1936, Hitler sent
German troops into the
Rhineland (western
Germany), which was
supposed to be the French
occupied demilitarized area.
• This action, along with the
rearmament of Germany’s
military, were direct
violations of the Treaty of
Versailles.

63. France and Great Britain are greatly
opposed to Germany’s actions but do
nothing…
Why?

64. The German Path to War
• France and Great Britain,
condemned Hitler’s actions but
they were unprepared to deal
with Hitler and Germany due to
the Great Depression and other
economic problems.
• Hitler knew that the Germans
were more superior and that he
had no opposition facing him.

65. New Allies
• Hitler and Germany
also gained new allies.
• In 1936, Germany and
Italy became allies.
• The alliance was known
as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
• Later, a pact with
Japan would make it the
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis
or just Axis Powers for
short.

67. A Powerful Nation
• By 1937, Germany had become
a very powerful nation.
• Hitler pursued a long-held
goal, a union with his native
Austria.
• In 1938, Germany annexed
Austria, another direct
violation of the Treaty of
Versailles, which stated
Germany and Austria could not
form another alliance.
The arrival of German troops in
Austria is met with enthusiasm.

68. Invasion of Czechoslovakia
• Following the annexation of Austria,
Hitler set his eyes on an ethnically
German region of Czechoslovakia
called the Sudetenland.
• In March 1939, he ordered his troops
to take over Czechoslovakia.
• Many hoped that that this would be
the last conquest of the Nazis;
however, this was the first true
aggressive act that suggested that a
war in Europe would soon begin. A Czech woman reluctantly salutes the Nazis

69. Nom, Nom, Nom…

70. No Opposition
• Once again, the allies of France and
Britain did not step in to intervene
and help Czechoslovakia.
• They did begin to react, though.
• Great Britain said it would step in
and protect Poland if Hitler invaded.
• France and Britain also began
negotiations with Joseph Stalin, the
Soviet dictator.
• They knew that they would need the
Soviet Union to help contain the
Nazis if war were to break out.

71. The Non-Aggression Pact
• Hitler was afraid of an alliance
between the West and the Soviet
Union.
• In August of 1939, Germany and the
Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet
Non-aggression Pact.
• They promised not to attack each
other.
• Hitler offered Stalin eastern Poland
and the Baltic states (territory
Russia lost in WWI).
• This would enable Hitler to invade
Poland without fear of opposition
from the Soviets.

72. Why is this such a strange
Alliance or Peace Agreement?

73. • The non-aggression pact was surprising. Hitler and Stalin were seen as natural
enemies.
• When Hitler talked of taking over new land for Germany, many thought that he
meant Russia.
• Hitler also hated Communism, the form of government in Russia.
• Despite these peace talks, Hitler knew that eventually he would break the pact.
Hitler Stalin

76. The Act of War
• On September 1st, 1939,
Adolf Hitler’s German
army invaded Poland.
• Two days later, France
and Great Britain
declared war on
Germany.
• World War II had begun.
German Troops marching into Warsaw, the
capital of Poland.