Adolf hitler biography jews holocaust videos

After ordering the occupation of Norway and Denmark in AprilHitler adopted a plan proposed by one of his generals to attack France through the Ardennes Forest. German troops made it all the way to the English Channel, forcing British and French forces to evacuate en masse from Dunkirk in late May. On June 22, France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany.

Hitler had hoped to force Britain to seek peace as well, but when that failed he went ahead with his attacks on that country, followed by an invasion of the Soviet Union in June At that point in the conflict, Hitler shifted his central strategy to focus on breaking the alliance of his main opponents Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union by forcing one of them to make peace with him.

Beginning inthe SS had operated a network of concentration camps, including a notorious camp at Dachaunear Munich, to hold Jews and other targets of the Nazi regime. After war broke out, the Nazis shifted from expelling Jews from German-controlled territories to exterminating them. Einsatzgruppen, or mobile death squads, executed entire Jewish communities during the Soviet invasion, while the existing concentration-camp network expanded to include death camps like Auschwitz -Birkenau in occupied Poland.

With defeats at El-Alamein and Stalingradas well as the landing of U. As the conflict continued, Hitler became increasingly unwell, isolated and dependent on medications administered by his personal physician. Several attempts were made on his life, including one that came close to succeeding in Julywhen Col. Within a few months of the successful Allied invasion of Normandy in Junethe Allies had begun liberating cities across Europe.

That December, Hitler attempted to direct another offensive through the Ardennes, trying to split British and American forces. But after Januaryhe holed up in a bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin. With Soviet forces closing in, Hitler made plans for a last-ditch resistance before finally abandoning that plan. After dictating his political testament, Hitler shot himself in his suite on April 30; Braun took poison.

With Soviet troops occupying Berlin, Germany surrendered unconditionally on all fronts on May 7,bringing the war in Europe to a close. William L. Holocaust Memorial Museum. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. Your Profile. Email Updates. He resolved to go into politics. To the victors the spoils: when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in summerGermany was forced to accept sole responsibility for the war.

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.

Adolf hitler biography jews holocaust videos: The generation of those who

In February he spoke before a crowd of nearly 6, in Munich. To publicise the meeting, he engaged in propaganda tactics — sending out party supporters in trucks with swastikas to leaflet the area. But the party executive, including founder Anton Drexler, were uneasy at Hitler's growing popularity. In an effort to weaken his position, they formed an alliance with a socialist group while Hitler was in Berlin visiting other nationalist parties.

It backfired spectacularly. Hitler promptly resigned and rejoined only when he was handed sole control. Hyperinflation saw the price of a loaf of bread rise from marks to billion by November. Hitler sought to start a revolution. Hitler burst in with his storm troopers the SA — a motley crew of far-right paramilitaries. At gunpoint, Kahr was forced to pledge support.

The next day, Hitler led 3, men onto the streets. But the police were waiting.

Adolf hitler biography jews holocaust videos: After Adolf Hitler's rise to

In the ensuing violence, 16 Nazis and 3 policemen died. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for treason. 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. 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 a Germany under Nazi control — military expansion, elimination of "impure" races and dictatorial authoritarianism.

After the failure of his revolution Hitler looked to the ballot box. But despite his own rising profile, in the Nazis won just 2.

Adolf hitler biography jews holocaust videos: These educational Holocaust videos

A resurgent German economy had seen public opinion move to the political centre. Events on the other side of the world would change all that. 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.

German President von Hindenburg's concern at growing Communist support persuaded him to give Hitler the post of Chancellor in January. Hitler quickly consolidated his position. By March he had dictatorial powers courtesy of the Enabling Act, which allowed him to pass laws without Reichstag approval. Political parties, organisations and unions unassociated with the Nazis were soon disbanded.

But Hitler still needed the support of the army to fulfil the vision he had outlined in Mein Kampf. Army leaders were wary of the paramilitaries who had helped Hitler to power. He allayed those concerns ruthlessly, tightening his own grip on power. He could not tolerate opposition to his plans to suppress workers' rights and make Germany ready for war.

Hitler was now in total control. Since the Nazis had tried to exclude Jews and other 'undesirables' from public life. In a new phase began — enforced biological segregation. At the annual Nuremberg rally Hitler announced laws denying Jewish people citizenship and prohibiting marriage or sexual relations with people of "German or related blood".

Anyone with three or more Jewish grandparents was affected, irrespective of their own religious identity. Hitler characterised the laws as an effort to "achieve the legislative regulation of a problem which, if it breaks down again, will then have to be transferred by law to the National Socialist Party for final solution". 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. Convinced that neither Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, nor his French counterpart Edouard Daladier wanted war, Hitler pressed his demands.

At a conference in Munich organised by Chamberlain, those demands were met. Nazi troops marched into Czechoslovakia and took the Sudetenland. Read more about WW2. He quickly rose through the ranks and, bywas the leader of the re-named National Socialist German Workers' Party Nazi. With terrible economic conditions and rapid inflation, support for Hitler's party grew.

Bythe Nazi's had 56, members and many more supporters. He hoped to force the Bavarian government to work with the Nazis and march together on Berlin. The attempt failed but, although Hitler was tried for treason, the judge gave him a very light sentence. While in prison, Hitler wrote 'Mein Kampf', which formulated his political ideas.

He reorganised his party on his release from jail, but it was not until the world depression hit Germany that the Nazis were able to attract significant followers. Bythe Nazis were polling around 6. In the presidential elections ofHitler came second. On 30 JanuaryPresident Hindenburg was forced to appoint Hitler as Chancellorgiven his popular support.

In office, Hitler set about consolidating his power, appointing Nazis to government and gaining control of emergency powers. He eliminated all adolf hitler biography jews holocaust videos, in the name of emergency control and, with the death of Hindenburg inHitler's power was secured. Hitler put Germany's unemployed to work on a massive rearmament programme, using propaganda and manufacturing enemies, such as the Jewsto prepare the country for war.

Initially, Hitler's actions were ignored by his powerful neighbours, as they believed appeasement was the only way to avoid a war. InHitler invaded the Rhineland, which had been demilitarised at Versailles. He then proceeded to annex Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia. Under the Munich Agreement ofthe West accepted this. In AprilDenmark and Norway were also taken.

France quickly followed.