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Amanda Eiler

Mr. Neuburger

English 101 sec 130

17 May 2011

Evolving of the Generations

The Rise of the Nazis and Hitler

Would there have been a Holocaust without Hitler? Did one man really gain so much

power that he and he alone could be responsible for millions of deaths? The answers to these

questions are simply no; but what if Hitler did get into the art school? Would we know him as a

famous artist instead? What if he was shy and a horrible public speaker? Would we not know

him at all? There are many possibilities but there is only one that he lived up to, and that is the

leader of the Holocaust.

The word Holocaust was originally used to describe mass destruction especially by fire.

After the war the meaning had changed to describe the senseless slaughter that claimed millions

of lives. Eleven million people, 6 million of them Jews, perished during the twelve years of the

Nazi Reich. How could this have happened in a civilized country, and who is to blame? Some

place the blame on Hitler and the Nazi leadership as others argue that the Nazi leadership

planned the Holocaust, but hundreds of ordinary people carried it out. The truthprobably lies

somewhere between the two, and the evidence may start back before the birth of Adolf Hitler.

To understand a Germans mentality and life style one must start at the roots of their

blood. Going all the way back to the fifthcentury A.D. when the Roman Empire collapsed the

tribes of Germans moved across the Rhine and Danube rivers. They settled in Roman territories,
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but they had no desire to build an empire of their own. They valued personal freedom too much

to have a controlled Government, yet warfare was the way of life. The historian Tacitus wrote

that the Germanic tribes ³actually think it tame and stupid to acquire by the sweat of toil what

they might win by their blood.´ (Cantor, p.54) Several years later the foundation of the German

culture was completed with the addition of Christianity, added to the German tribe congregation,

and mixed with the Roman elements. They lived freely and on their own without hindrance until

the year 800 when Charlemagne became king of the Holy Roman Empire.

It was under Charlemagne¶s rule when the Germansworked, for the first time, sided by

side with the Jews. Seenas a powerful Man, Charlemagne still could not convince the tribal

Germans that his empire was good for their rule. Although he never won the battle to be their

king he did accomplish a few things such as transforming the jumbled German law into a

consistent legal code and he established a standard currency for which he turned to the Jews for

help in building trade and commerce. After the Death of Charlemagne it would be almost a

thousand years before another great ruler would be seen by the Germans.

In 1740 a man named Frederick the Great came into rule. He was unable to create the

German empire but he did take unimportant Prussia and turned it into a powerful state. Frederick

the Great accomplished this by having Junkers (people who lived by a harsh military code, that

glorified warfare and bloodshed) control not only the military but the government as well.

Frederick¶s method was to attack without warning, striking hard and

fast with overwhelming force. He did a lot for his people but not

enough to give the Germans their union.

The next man to stride into the European eye was Napoleon

from Paris. Napoleon shattered the Roman Empire preaching for

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hsmith/grabenhorst/grabenhorst2.htm
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liberty, equality, and community.In 1804 this meant freedom for Jews; not only did the Jewish

people gain civil rights but the Jewish religion was declared equal to Christianity. This was an

uproar for the tribal Germans. Not only did this create a deep hatred for the Jewish people but

also for the French. The Germans argued that they were superior because of their native roots

that they had to each other, and to the land. They felt as though they had an inborn superiority to

the ³lesser races´. In 1813 the German states gathered together against the French to reclaim

their political rule, but it was not until 1815 that the French gave into their independence. The

Germans became the German Confederation and they were considered a loose alliance to the

king.

Germany still did not have their place on the map. That would finally change with the

rule of another Junker by the name of Otto Van Bismarck. From the start Bismarck wanted to

unify Germany under the Prussian rule. His Germany would be a nation of warriors; men who

settled their disputes on the battlefield not in the courts of government. Bismarck once said ³the

great decisions of the day are not made by Parliament majorities, but by blood and iron.´During

Bismarck¶s rule he granted full civil rights to Jews and established universal male voting rights

for the lower house in parliament. The upper house in parliament remained in control because

there membership was determined by right of birth, not by election. This worked well in new

Germany because the Jews felt as if they had a country to call home, and the Germansdid not

have to give up any of their power or born rights.

³Their love of and loyalty to the new Germany was beyond question,´ wrote historian

Alexis P. Rubin when speaking about the Jews under the new rule. ³They entered the professions

in large numbers becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists. They applied

their«commercial skills to big business which was then (growing) as a result of the industrial
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Revolution. They also invested in stock markets and worked on exchanges.´(Rubin,p.157). This

may be known as the most peaceful time between the Jews and Germany. Even with this peace

there was a great deal of haltered and blame placed on the Jews. This social advance happened at

a time of massive social change. The industrial Revolution was turning Germany upside down;

and of course the Germans found a way to blame the Jews for all of this. No matter how loyal the

Jews were to Germany it was never good enough they were still seen as the outsiders.Eventually

Bismarck resigned leaving the door open for Kaiser Wilhelm II who sits at the throne to start

WWI.

As far as history writes back the Germans have shown an inhumane and violent way of

life. There is this hidden gene of ragging superiority that seems to be found in just about each

and every German during these times. Hatred towards Jews seems to be like a tradition passed

from generation to generation.The Germans have blamed the Jews from the time of Christ. So

how do you use this to control thousands and get them to do unthinkable things? Or is control not

needed, just an opportunity? Not only did many Germans kill and severely hurt millions of

Jewish people, they enjoyed it. The Jews were always the outsiders and the reason for any

problem that the Germans may have had. Battle after battle had led us to WWI which was the

breaking point for the Germans. Many, almost all, Germans wanted to be in their rightful spot

and not pushed around. They needed a purpose and a reason for all of their turmoil.

Unfortunatelystep by step it lead them into a country¶s largest, ever mass murder.

Every good group of trouble makers needs a ringleader. For Germany

this would end up to be a man named Adolf Hitler. Hitler was born in Braunau

Austria on April 20, 1889. Throughout Adolf¶s life he is described as odd,

having an increasingly unstable personality with a terrible temper, no real

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interest in girls, and it was said that he would have brilliant ideas but never followed through

with any of them. His father,Alois was a strict man who was both verbally and physically

abusive and very controlling.Alois only had one career for Adolf and that was to follow in his

footsteps and become a civil servant. Hitler did not become a civil servant. Instead he became a

mediocre student, failed artist, and a ³street person´ in Vienna. he made money by selling hand-

painted picture postcards to tourists. It was during those days that Hitler first became aware of

what he would latter call the ³Jewish question;´(Hitler, p52) Which was the beginning of Hitler¶s

obsession with the Jews.

³Was there any form of filth«particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew

involvedin it?...This was pestilence, spiritual pestilence, worse than the Black Death of

olden times and the people [were] being infected with it.´(Hitler, p224)

Hitler not only hated the Jews but also the rulers of Austria. They were not German enough to

suit him.

When WWI began in 1914 Hitler was determined to serve in the German army instead of

the Austrian army. He petitioned King Ludwig of Bavaria for permission to join his army. The

petition was accepted and Adolf Hitler became a soldier of the German empire at the age of

twenty-five.

At the end of the war Germany lost a lot of territory and the economy plummeted. Hitler

and most Germans blamed the communists and the Jews. Hitler came to the conclusion that

something had to be done and he was the man to do it. Hitler decided that his next step in life

needed to be in politics.

In 1919 Hitler attended a meeting of the German Workers Party. These groups were

normally small and filled with social misfits that were found gathered in beer halls. It was
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militant, nationalistic, and anti-Semitic. To Hitler they seemed more like a club than a serious

political movement, but he joined anyway. Taking the opportunity to shape it into something

more and give it power by numbers. Hitler felt as if he was the perfect person for the job. He

received membership card number seven and got right to work.

Hitler knew that to turn this club into a serious political movement he had to speak to the

masses and the masses could not just hear what he was saying, they had to feel it. The first step

was to get more people to come to the meetings. When that was accomplished it would be his job

to get their blood boiling, and not only have the support for that one night but he would have to

create loyal support. Soon popularity of the group grew and so did the memberships. In 1920 the

parties name was changed to the more formal impressive name ³National Socialist German

Workers¶ Party.´ Hitler quickly learned that hate drew crowds and the meetings turned into

noisy, boisterous affairs, balanced on the edge of violence. The more popular Hitler got the more

invincible he acted. Hitler would push the limits and at one point found himself behind bars in

jail. Hitler took advantage of the publicity and his six months he served out of his five year

sentence by speaking freely in the court room during trial and by writing his book Mien Kampf.

He was released in December 1924 and banned from public speaking in Bavaria. This was no

sweat off of Hitler¶s back; during this time he just sat back and let his book do the talking. The

party membership doubled from fifty thousand in 1926 to one hundred thousand in 1928.

Hitler looked at this jump in numbers and used the time to reorganize the party.

He added departments for everything; he organized a range of social organizations and

even professional societies to get thousands involved in the everyday Nazi life. It worked

too. He had something for everyone and an answer to their struggles. Most importantly he

created a plan that gave the Germans hope of a better world and a better life.
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There was something almost mystical in German ideas about leadership. Rudolf

Hess had commented on this. Germans did not want to be led by ordinary human beings

like themselves, he wrote. They wanted ³idols endowed with superhuman qualities´

(Grunberger, p.84) larger than life men with a commanding presence and big dreams.

This is what Frederick the Great had been, what Prince Bismarck had been. This was

what Adolf Hitler aimed to be.

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Works Cited

"From Unknown to Dictator of Germany.˜

 



.Web. 25 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/index.htm>.

"Holocaust Survivor FelaGipsman Testimony."Interview by Merle Goldburg. The Shoah Foundation, 11

July 2009. Web.

"Holocaust Survivor Mayer Adler Testimony."Interview by Merle Goldberg. The Shoah Foundation, 15

June 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2011.

Hughes, Matthew, and Chris Mann.



. London: Brown Reference Group, 2000.

Print.



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.Artsmagic Ltd., 2006. DVD.

Rudolf Hess, quoted in Shirer

Nadler, John. 




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# 
.

New York: Presidio, 2006. Print.

Cantor, Norman F. 

"

 $
%
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 &"
'. [New York]: Macmillan,

1969. Print.

Grunberger, Richard. ˜
()*
 
 

 +'
(,--*(,./. New York: Da

Capo, 1995. Print.

Hitler, Adolf, and Ralph Manheim.
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971. Print.

Rubin, Alexis P. 

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+!

01
2  .,(,3/.

Northvale, NJ: J. Aronson, 1995. Print.