Hitler rose to power through the Nazi Party, an organization he forged after returning as a wounded veteran from the annihilating trench warfare of World War I. How were Hitler and the Nazis possible? How did such odious characters take and hold power in a country that was a world pacesetter in literature, art, architecture, and science, a nation that had a democratic government and a free press in the 1920s? He had the active support of the powerful German officer class and of millions of everyday citizens who voted for the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party and hailed him as a national savior in gigantic stadium rallies. Hitler had supreme authority as führer (leader or guide), but could not have risen to power or committed such atrocities on his own. During the course of the war, Nazi military forces rounded up and executed 11 million victims they deemed inferior or undesirable-“life unworthy of life”-among them Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. His invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, triggered the European phase of World War II. Upon achieving power, Hitler smashed the nation’s democratic institutions and transformed Germany into a war state intent on conquering Europe for the benefit of the so-called Aryan race. He ruled absolutely until his death by suicide in April 1945. Adolf Hitler (ApApril 30, 1945) was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party.
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