Aladdin (1992 film)

Able to alter his voice tone sometimes tricking his master's enemies. Days later, on February 22, Hitler was recorded saying to his closest associates, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews". Iago (Gilbert Gottfried) – Jafar's parrot and right-hand man. The records of this meeting provide the clearest evidence of central planning for the Holocaust. Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) – The scheming Grand Vizier of Agrabah. To make for smoother intra-governmental cooperation in the implementation of this "Final Solution" to the "Jewish question", the Wannsee conference was held near Berlin on January 20, 1942, with fifteen senior officials participating, led by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. Genie (Robin Williams) – Aladdin's eccentric genie servant-turned-friend who makes many anachronistic pop culture references. During interrogations by Soviet intelligence officers declassified over fifty years later, Hitler's valet Heinz Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche said Hitler had "pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers.".

Rajah (Russi Taylor) – Princess Jasmine's pet tiger, remarkably dog-like in behavior and role. While no specific order from Hitler authorising the mass killing of the Jews has surfaced, there is documentation he approved the Einsatzgruppen and the evidence also suggests that sometime in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler agreed in principle on mass extermination by gassing. The Sultan (Douglas Seale) – Princess Jasmine's father and ruler of Agrabah. The massacres that led to the coining of the word "genocide" (the Endlösung or "Final Solution") were planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with Himmler playing a key role. Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin, singing voice by Lea Salonga) – Aladdin's love interest and the Princess of Agrabah. This industrial-scale genocide in Europe is referred to as the Holocaust. Abu (Frank Welker) – Aladdin's pet monkey, initially his only friend. Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles (over 3 million of whom died), alleged communists or political opposition, homosexuals, dissenting Roman Catholics and Protestants, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients were killed.

Aladdin (Scott Weinger, singing voice by Brad Kane) – the beggar who becomes a hero. Between 1939 and 1945 the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed at least 11 million people (other estimates are as high as 26 million; 6 million of whom were Jews^[5]) in concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere.^[6] Besides being gassed to death, many also died of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers. Then on November 5, 1937, at the Reich Chancellory, Adolf Hitler held a secret meeting and stated his plans for acquiring "living space" (Lebensraum) for the German people. They were collectively known as the Axis Powers. This alliance was later expanded to include Japan, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

An Axis was declared between Germany and Italy by Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on October 25, 1936. Hitler sent troops to support Franco and Spain served as a testing ground for Germany's new armed forces and their methods, including the bombing of undefended towns such as Guernica, which was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in April 1937, prompting Pablo Picasso's famous eponymous painting (see Guernica). In July 1936 the Spanish Civil War began when the military, led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the elected Popular Front government of Spain. When Britain and France did nothing, he grew bolder.

In March 1936 Hitler again violated the Treaty of Versailles by reoccupying the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland. For the first time in a generation, Germany's armed forces were as strong as those of her antagonistic neighbour, France. The enlistment of vast numbers of men and women in the new military seemed to solve unemployment problems but seriously distorted the economy. He set about building a massive military machine, including a new Navy (the Kriegsmarine) and an Air Force (the Luftwaffe).

In March 1935 Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles by reintroducing conscription in Germany. Throughout the 1930s the Propaganda Ministry disseminated anti-Semitic propaganda. From 1941 Jews were required to wear a yellow star in public. Between November 1938 and September 1939 more than 180,000 Jews fled Germany and the Nazis seized whatever property they left behind.

In 1938 a pogrom orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels and endorsed by Hitler called Kristallnacht destroyed many Jewish businesses and synagogues and resulted in about 100 deaths. The policy was successful in causing the emigration of many thousands but nevertheless turned increasingly violent in the mid to late 1930s. Under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws Jews lost their German citizenship and were expelled from government employment, the professions and most forms of economic activity. The racial policies of Nazi Germany during the early to mid-1930s included the harassment and persecution of Jews through legislation, restrictions on civil rights and limiting their economic opportunities.

This was implemented not only against political enemies such as communists but also against perceived "asocials" such as habitual criminals and the work-shy along with "racial enemies," mainly Jews. The Gestapo-SS complex (the SS and Gestapo organisations) were primarily responsible for repression in the Nazi state. In 1932 Hitler was instrumental in initiating the design work on the car that later became the Volkswagen Beetle.^[4]. Had the railroad been built, its gauge would have been three meters, even wider than the old Great Western Railway of Britain.

Although Hitler made plans for a Breitspurbahn (broad gauge railroad network), they were pre-empted by World War II. Olympia, the movie about the games and documentary propaganda films for the German Nazi Party were directed by Hitler's personal film-maker Leni Riefenstahl. In 1936 Berlin hosted the summer Olympic games, which were opened by Hitler and choreographed to demonstrate Aryan superiority over all other races. Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale, with Albert Speer becoming famous as the first architect of the Reich.

Hitler's policies emphasised the importance of family life: Men were the "breadwinners", while women's priorities were to be "church, kitchen and children", in German Kirche, Küche und Kinder or "Drei K" (three Ks). Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads and other civil works. Given this, claims that the German economy achieved near full employment are at least partly artifacts of propaganda from the era. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs.

Nazi policies towards women strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep house. Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt flotation and expansion of the military. Having secured supreme political power without an electoral mandate from the majority of Germans, Hitler went on to gain their support by persuading most Germans he was their saviour from the Depression, the Communists, the Versailles Treaty and the Jews. See also Nazi Germany.

Then in an unprecedented step, Hitler ordered every member of the military to swear a personal oath of allegiance to him. This consolidation was approved by 90% of the electorate in mid-August 1934. Rather than hold new presidential elections Hitler's cabinet passed a law combining the offices of president and chancellor with Hitler holding both offices (which included the president's decree powers) as leader and national chancellor. Soon after, president Paul von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934.

Opponents unconnected with the SA were also murdered, notably Gregor Strasser and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. Meanwhile the SA was growing into an independent power of its own and Hitler used allegations of a plot by the SA leader Ernst Röhm to purge the paramilitary force's leadership during the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler also used the SA paramilitary to push Hugenberg into resigning and proceeded to politically isolate Vice Chancellor von Papen. Labour unions were merged with employers' federations into an organisation under Nazi control and the autonomy of state governments was severely diminished.

The SPD was banned and all other political parties dissolved themselves. With this combination of legislative and executive power, Hitler's government soon suppressed all opposition. Later that day, still waiting for the promised letter, Kaas gave his speech, voicing the Centre's support for the bill amid "concerns put aside." At last, all parties except the Social Democrats voted in favour of the Enabling Act, which was dutifully renewed every four years, even through World War II. Hitler gave a speech which emphasized the importance of both Christian denominations to German culture.

Some SA paramilitaries served as guards as others crowded outside the building to intimidate opposing views. On 23 March the Reichstag assembled under turbulent circumstances. These guarantees were orally transmitted and Kaas was promised a letter with them in writing. The Centre Party was split on this issue, but eventually followed its chairman, Monsignor Kaas, who had advocated supporting the bill in parliament in return for government giving sundry guarantees to civil servants belonging to the Centre Party along with freedom and autonomy of the Catholic Church.

The bill required a two-thirds majority in order to pass and the Nazis needed support from other parties. The government confronted the newly elected Reichstag with the Enabling Act which gave Hitler's cabinet sweeping legislative powers. At an impressive constitutional opening ceremony of the Reichstag, held in the replacement parliament building on 21 March, both Hindenburg and the world press were impressed by Hitler's apparent acceptance of constitutional government. Hitler further strengthened his parliamentary basis by detaining Communist deputies and (illegally) excluding them from parliament.

On 5 March 1933, in elections marred by paramilitary violence, the Nazis received 43.9% of the vote, which brought the coalition between them and the DNVP an absolute majority. After the Reichstag was set on fire (and the communists were blamed for it), the Reichstag Fire Decree (28 February) suspended basic rights including habeas corpus. On the morning of January 30, 1933 in Hindenburg's office Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. When Schleicher was forced to admit failure in his efforts to form a coalition and asked for emergency powers along with the same postponement of elections he had opposed earlier, Hindenburg fired him and reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor, Papen Vice-Chancellor and Hugenberg Minister of Economics in a cabinet which included three Nazis in key positions (Hitler, Göring and Wilhelm Frick).

In November 1932, Fritz Thyssen, Hjalmar Schacht and other leading German businessmen appealed to Hindenburg in a letter to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties" which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people." [3] Finally, Papen and Alfred Hugenberg (Chairman of the German National People's Party, the DNVP, which before the Nazis had been Germany's principal right-wing party) conspired to persuade Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor in a coalition with the DNVP, promising they would be able to control him and stabilize the government. Hindenburg at first accepted this, but after General Kurt von Schleicher and the military withdrew their support, Hindenburg instead dismissed Papen and appointed Schleicher, who promised he could secure a majority government by negotiations with both the Social Democratic labour unions and the dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. After Papen failed to secure a majority he proposed to dissolve parliament again along with an indefinite postponement of elections. During the November 1932 elections the Nazis lost votes although they remained the largest party in the Reichstag.

Hence the negotiations failed. Hitler however set high terms, demanding the Chancellorship along with the President's agreement that he be able to use the 1919 constitution's sweeping emergency powers. Papen and the Centre Party (Zentrumspartei) separately began negotiations to secure Nazi participation in order to provide a new government with a basis in parliament. After a vote of no-confidence in the Papen government, supported by 84% of the delegates, the new Reichstag was dissolved and new elections were called.

Since the Nazis and the communists now together controlled a majority of the Reichstag, the formation of a stable government of mainstream parties was impossible. In July 1932 the Nazis had their best showing yet, winning 230 seats and becoming the largest party in the Reichstag. Hindenburg dismissed the government and appointed a new one under the ex-military conservative Franz von Papen, which immediately called for new Reichstag elections. Hitler refused and ultimately ran against Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election, coming in second on both rounds, attaining more than 35% of the vote during the second one in April.

Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and the government was anxious to avoid a presidential election in 1932, hoping to secure Nazi agreement to an extension of President Paul von Hindenburg's term. The event is viewed as having caused lasting turmoil for him. Geli was much younger than he was and had used his gun, drawing rumours of a relationship between the two. Meanwhile in December 1931 Hitler's niece Geli Raubal was found dead in her bedroom in his Munich apartment (his half-sister Angela and her daughter Geli had been with him in Munich since 1929), an apparent suicide.

The 1930 election was a disaster for Heinrich Brüning's centre-right government, which was now deprived of a majority in the Reichstag. The urban working classes generally ignored Hitler's appeals (Berlin and the Ruhr towns were particularly hostile). Hitler appealed to the bulk of German farmers, war veterans and the middle-class who had been hard-hit by both the inflation of the 1920s and the unemployment of the Depression. While the Social Democrats and traditional parties of the centre and right were unable to cope with the shock of the Depression, in the September 1930 elections the Nazis suddenly rose from relative obscurity to win 18.3% of the vote along with 107 seats in the Reichstag, becoming the second largest party in Germany.

The democratic Weimar Republic established in 1919 had never been accepted by conservatives and was openly opposed by fascists. The political turning point for Hitler came when the Depression hit Germany in 1930. See also the Weimar Timeline.. He owed the German government 405,000 Reichmarks (equivalent to $8 million at 2004 exchange rates) by the time he took power and the tax debt was forgiven.

In 2004, it was discovered that Hitler had spent years evading taxes on income from sales of Mein Kampf. In restoring the party organisation, Hitler asserted the Führerprinzip, or unquestioning obedience to superiors, with all power and authority devolving from the top down -- consistent with his well-documented statements of disdain for democracy, which he considered an unstable and dangerous form of government. The party learned quickly and soon a more subtle propaganda emerged, combining anti-Semitism with an attack on the failures of the "Weimar system" and the parties supporting it. Most Germans bitterly resented these terms but early Nazi attempts to gain support by blaming these humiliations on "international Jewry" were not particularly successful with the electorate.

Germany had lost economically important territory in Europe along with its colonies and in admitting to sole responsibility for the war had agreed to pay a huge reparations bill totaling $6,600,000 (32 billion marks). A key element of Hitler's appeal was his ability to convey a sense of offended national pride caused by the Treaty of Versailles imposed on the defeated German Empire by the Allies. By this time the Nazi party had dwindled and Hitler began a long effort to rebuild it. Meanwhile, as he was considered relatively harmless, Hitler was given an early amnesty and was released in December 1924.

The first volume, called "Abrechnung" (payback), was later published and became the platform of the Nazi party (by the late 1930s nearly every household in Germany had a copy of it). While at Landsberg he dictated his political book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to his deputy Rudolf Hess. For the crime of conspiracy to commit treason Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg prison where he received favoured treatment from the guards and had much fan mail from admirers. He was given almost unlimited amounts of time to present his arguments to the court along with a large body of the German people and his popularity soared when he voiced basic nationalistic sentiments shared by the public.

During Hitler's trial in April 1924 sympathetic conservative magistrates allowed Hitler to turn his debacle into a propaganda stunt. He was soon arrested for high treason and appointed Alfred Rosenberg as temporary leader of the party but found himself in an environment somewhat receptive to his beliefs. Hitler fled to the home of friends and contemplated suicide. During the night, they had prepared the resistance against the coup and in the morning, when the Nazis marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry, to overthrow Bavaria's government - traitors in their eyes - as the first step on their "March on Berlin", the army quickly dispersed them.

Unknown to him, Kahr and the other detainees had been released on orders of Ludendorff after having given their word not to interfere. The surprised Hitler then had them arrested and proceeded with the coup. However, on November 8, 1923, Kahr and the military withdrew their support during a meeting in the Bürgerbräu beer hall. As posters show, Ludendorff, Hitler and two Bavarian leading militaries were thought to form a new government.

Hitler and Ludendorff also got the clandestine support of Gustav von Kahr, Bavaria's right-wing de-facto ruler, and the Bavarian divisions of the Reichswehr. His aim was to emulate Mussolini's "March on Rome" by a "March on Berlin", but later this abortive coup was known as the "Hitler Putsch". Encouraged by this early support, Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a front in an attempt to seize power in the turbulent year 1923. At that time, wartime General Erich Ludendorff associated with him.

He also attracted the attention of local business interests and was accepted into influential circles of Munich society. Early followers included Rudolf Hess, the former air force pilot Hermann Göring, and the flamboyant army captain Ernst Röhm, who became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the SA, which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. Hitler's beer hall oratory, attacking Jews, socialists and liberals, capitalists and communists, began attracting adherents. He soon became its leader and changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), usually known as the Nazi party.

Hitler was discharged from the army in 1920 and (with the army's continued encouragement) began participating full time in the party's activities. Here Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the early founders of the party.^[2]. In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a V-Mann (Verbindungsmann is the German term for a police spy) of "Aufklärungskommando" ("Intelligence Commando") of the Reichswehr, for the purpose of influencing other soldiers towards similar ideas and was assigned to infiltrate a small nationalist party, the German Workers' Party (DAP). The scapegoats were found in "international Jewry," communists and politicians across the party spectrum, especially the parties of the Weimar Coalition, who were deemed "November criminals".

A key purpose of this group was to create a scapegoat for the outbreak of the war and Germany's defeat. He took part in "national thinking" courses organised by the Education and Propaganda Department (Dept Ib/P) of the Bavarian Reichswehr Group, Headquarters 4 under Captain Mayr. After the war, Hitler remained in the army, which was mainly engaged in suppressing socialist uprisings breaking out across Germany, including Munich (Bavarian Soviet Republic), where Hitler returned in 1919. The treaty was perceived by most Germans as a humiliation and was an important factor in both the social and political conditions encountered by Hitler and his National Socialist Party as they sought power.

The widespread right-wing, conservative explanation for the capitulation was the Dolchstosslegende ("dagger-stab legend") which purported that behind the backs of the army, liberal politicians had betrayed and "stabbed" Germany's people and its soldiers "in the back." The Treaty of Versailles imposed crippling reparations and other economically damaging sanctions, declaring Germany guilty for the horrors of the Great War. Like many other German nationalists, Hitler blamed civilian politicians (the "November criminals") for the surrender. He was shocked by the capitulation of Germany in November 1918 while the German army remained (in popular German belief) undefeated. Hitler had long admired Germany and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot, although he did not become a German citizen until 1932.

However, historian Sebastian Haffner, referring to Hitler's experience at the front, suggests he did have at least some understanding of the military. Meanwhile he was treated by a military physician and specialist in psychiatry who reportedly diagnosed the corporal as "incompetent to command people" and "dangerously psychotic." His commander at the time said, "I will never promote this hysteric!" (cited from Haiden, 1937). Hitler later said it was during this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to save Germany. Research by Bernhard Horstmann indicates the blindness may have been the result of a hysterical reaction to Germany's defeat.

On October 15, 1918, shortly before the end of war, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a poison gas attack. One comrade later remarked, "we all grumbled on him and found it intolerable that we had a white raven among us." (Haiden, 1936). "Respect the superior, don't contradict anybody, obey blindly," he said, describing his attitude while on trial for his Beer Hall Putsch in 1924. Hitler was considered a "correct" soldier but was reportedly unpopular with his comrades because of an uncritical attitude towards officers.

During October 1916 in northern France Hitler was wounded in the leg, returning to the front in March 1917. He was twice cited for bravery in action, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in December 1915 and the Iron Cross, First Class in August 1918, an honour rarely given to a lance corporal (he was not a German citizen at the time and so could not be promoted beyond corporal). He also drew some cartoons and instructional drawings for the army newspaper. Hitler saw active service in France and Belgium as a messenger for the 16th Bavarian reserve infantry regiment, which exposed him to enemy fire.

However, when Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he immediately enlisted in the Bavarian army. After a physical exam (during which his height was measured at 1.73 m, or 5 ft 8 in) and a plea, he was found unfit for service and allowed to return to Munich. Moving to Munich also helped him escape military service in Austria for a time, but the Austrian army later arrested him. In Munich, he became more interested in architecture and the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain.

He later wrote in Mein Kampf that he had always longed to live in a German city. He was given a small inheritance from his father in May 1913 and moved to Munich. However, according to August Kubizek, his close friend and roommate at the time, he was more interested in the operas of Richard Wagner than in politics. He began to claim the Jews were natural enemies of "Aryans" and were responsible for Germany's economic problems.

Hitler had a firm belief in the inferiority of the Parliamentary system, and especially social democracy, which formed the basis of his political views. He later wrote that his transition from opposing anti-semitism on religious grounds, to supporting it on racial grounds, came from having seen an orthadox jew:. He was slowly influenced over time by the writings of the race ideologist and anti-Semite Lanz von Liebenfels and polemics from politicians such as Karl Lueger, the Mayor of Vienna and Georg Ritter von Schönerer, leader of the pan-Germanic Away from Rome! movement. Vienna had a large Jewish community, including many Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe.

It was in Vienna that Hitler became an active anti-Semite, a common stance among Austrians at the time. His anti-Semitism during this period was likely non-existent, since a Jewish resident of the house named Hanisch was helping him sell his postcards. He made spending money by painting tourist postcards of Vienna scenery. By 1909, he sought refuge in a homeless shelter, and by the beginning of 1910 had settled permanently into a house for poor working men.

After the second refusal from the Academy of Arts, Hitler gradually ran out of money. He worked as a struggling painter in Vienna, copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists (there is evidence he produced over 2000 paintings and drawings before World War I). He gave his share of the orphans' benefits to his younger sister Paula, but soon after inherited some money from an aunt. On December 21, 1907, his mother Klara died a painful death from breast cancer.

He was told he should become an architect, since he had some flair for making architectural sketches and drawings. After he was rejected twice by the Academy of Arts in Vienna (1907–1908) for "lack of talent" – which he resented deeply – he did not try to find a different job or learn a profession. From 1905 onward, Hitler was able to live the life of a Bohemian on a fatherless child's pension and support from his mother. At the age of 16, Hitler left school with no qualifications.

After Hitler's father died on January 3, 1903, aged 65, Hitler's schoolwork did not improve. This is further supported by Hitler's later description of himself as a misunderstood artist. Hitler later explained this as a kind of rebellion against his father Alois, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career as a customs official, although Adolf wanted to become a painter. His teachers reported that he had "no desire to work.".

As a young child, Hitler was reportedly a good student at the various elementary schools he attended; however, in sixth grade (1900–1901), his first year of high school (Realschule) in Linz, he failed completely and had to repeat the grade. Because of Alois Hitler's profession his family moved frequently, from Braunau to Passau, Lambach, Leonding and next to Linz. Historians such as Werner Maser and Ian Kershaw argue this was impossible since the Jews had been expelled from Graz in the 15th century and were not allowed to return until well after Maria Schicklgruber's alleged employment.^[1]. Soviet propaganda insisted he was a Jew, though more modern research tends to diminish the probability Hitler had Jewish or Czech ancestors.

Although these rumours were never confirmed, for Hitler they were reason enough to conceal his origins. Opponents tried to prove that Hitler, the leader of the anti-Semitic and jingoistic Nazi Party, had Jewish or Czech ancestors. During the 1920s, the implications of this along with his known family history were politically explosive, especially for the proponent of a racist ideology. There have been rumours that Hitler was one-quarter Jewish and that his paternal grandmother Maria Schicklgruber had become pregnant after working as a servant in a Jewish household in Graz.

Hitler did not know for sure who his paternal grandfather was, but it was probably either Johann Georg Hiedler or his brother Johann von Nepomuk Hiedler. He was legally born a Hitler, however, and was closely related to Hiedler through his mother's family. This was also exploited in Allied propaganda during the Second World War when pamphlets bearing the phrase "Heil Schicklgruber" were airdropped over German cities. Later, Adolf was accused by his political enemies of not rightfully being a Hitler, but a Schicklgruber.

The spelling was probably changed by a clerk. In 1876, he began using the name of his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler, after visiting a priest responsible for birth registries and declaring that Georg was his father (Alois gave the impression that Georg was still alive, but he was long dead). Alois Hitler was born out of wedlock, and, until he was 40, used his mother's surname, Schicklgruber. In Mein Kampf, his autobiography and exposition of his political ideology, Hitler describes his father as an "irascible tyrant"; however, there is little indication that Alois Hitler treated his son more strictly than was usual for that time and place.

Alois Hitler also had a son (Alois Junior) and a daughter (Angela) by his second wife. Of these six children, only Adolf and his younger sister Paula reached adulthood. He was the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler (1837–1903), a customs official, and Klara Pölzl, Alois' niece and third wife. Adolf Hitler was born close to sunset on April 20, 1889, at Braunau am Inn, Austria, a small town 90 km (55 miles) west of Linz in the province of Upper Austria, not far from the German border in what was then Austria-Hungary.

. The Third Reich, which he had said would last a thousand years, collapsed shortly thereafter. Ultimately, Germany was defeated by the Allied powers in 1945 and during the final days of the war Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin together with his newly wed wife, Eva Braun, and other high-ranking Nazi officials. The racial policies that Hitler directed culminated in a massive number of deaths, commonly cited as at least 11 million people – including 6 million Jews – in a genocide now known as the Holocaust.

At the height of their power during World War II, the armies of Nazi Germany and its Axis Powers dominated much of Europe. Under Hitler's leadership Germany ascended from the depths of post World War I defeat to rebuild its economy and decimated military. He was leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), better known as the Nazi Party.  Adolf Hitler^? (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Chancellor of Germany from 1933, and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor) of Germany from 1934, to his death.

Petersburg Times, 1999 (accessed June 11, 2005); Karen Silverstrim, "Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust," University of Central Arkansas (accessed June 11, 2005). ^  "11-million perished," St. ^  "How many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust? How do we know? Do we have their names?," from FAQs About The Holocaust, Yad Vashem (accessed June 11, 2005); "The Holocaust," Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (accessed June 11, 2005). ^  Adolf Hitler and Volkswagen, Hitler Historical Museum, 1999 (accessed June 11, 2005).