The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

The Nazi party affected many people around the world through both the Holocaust and World War II. Hitler had a plan to exterminate all the Jews, and propelled this idea through the Holocaust putting Jews in concentration camps and killing them. Hitler's evil plan caused one of the world's biggest tragedies, World War II.

Adolf Hitler, who was the leader of the Nazis, was born in Austria just across the border from German Bavaria. Hitler would begin to read his fathers history books about Native Americans and how they were slaughtered along with reading about battles between the Germans and Russians. This would make him familiar to racism at an early age. Hitler did not get along with his father when he was young because his father wanted him to get into politics and he like drawing instead, but he still got into art and the reason he started to hate Jews is because he could not sell his artwork but the Jews did (Shirer 3-14).

Hitler still did business with Jewish shop owners in selling his paintings, however, the seeds of hate were planted and would be nurtured by events soon to come, laying the foundation for one of the greatest tragedies in all of human history. Adolf became a drifter for several years after both his parents passed away. Hitler volunteered for the German Army and in his first engagement against the British and Belgians near Pyres, 2,500of the 3,000 men in Hitler's regiment were killed, wounded or missing. This war experience gave Hitler what he needed to one day be a successful military leader. Adolf Hitler joined the committee of the German Workers' Party and entered politics. In the summer of 1920 Hitler chose the swastika for the National Socialist German Workers' Party, for short Nazi.

At what is known as The Beer Hall Putsch a man by the name Kahr was giving a speech in front of some 3,000 supporters of the Bavarian government. Hitler shot his pistol in the middle of Kahr's speech and shouted, "The national revolution has begun."

The "revolution" began when Hitler lied to the people saying the Bavarian Trumimvirate (Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser) had joined forces with him. When the people applauded the Bavarian Truimvirate joined him (Shirer 35).

By the summer of 1923, the Nazi party had grown to 150,000 members.

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