Hitler's History

For my first post about a historical topic, I decided to bring out the big guns and share a few things about Adolf Hitler. In school, when we learn about Hitler, we are told of his life mainly during World War II. We know a great deal about his murderous ideals and merciless brutality towards Jews, gypsies, prisoners of war, handicaps, homosexuals, and many more Europeans. Hitler was, and to this day remains, one of the most evil tyrants in history. But people don't really know about Adolf Hitler's life prior to his rise to power. Who was the man that turned an angry group of revolutionaries into the deadliest gang in the world? What are a few things that happened in Hitler's early life that turned him into the maniac he was?

Hitler as an infant 1890

Adolf Hitler was born to Alois and Klara Hitler on April 20th, 1889 in Austria-Hungary. Of six children, Adolf and Paula Hitler were the only ones to survive into adulthood. Alois wanted his son to be very much like him. He was strict, authoritative, and strongly disciplined Hitler, who was lazy, moody, and far more attached to his mother. To say Hitler had daddy issues would be an understatement. Whenever his father scolded him, he grew closer to his mother. Hitler always described deep resentment for his father. You many recall various stories of Hitler wanting to attend art school. This desire spanned all the way back to his high school years, when he wanted to go to a classical school to become an artist. But Hitler's father had a different plans and sent him to a type of public high school in Linz, Austria. Hitler wrote in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, that he rebelled against this decision and did poorly in school on purpose in hopes his father would realize that he belonged in art school. However, his father didn't give two craps about art school.

Hitler's father proudly worked for the Austrian government, which could be a main reason Hitler developed a strong sense of German nationalism at an early age. It's strange to think that if Hitler hadn't been trying to find any way to stick it to his father, maybe he wouldn't have become such a die-hard Germany-lover. He only did because he knew it would piss off his dad. Shortly after his father died, Hitler moved to Vienna and was rejected from art school twice. During this time his mother died of cancer. It was blow after blow for Hitler in those years. To make a living, he sold watercolors, often times to Jewish customers. He even lived in a homeless workers shelter and had Jewish friends. But Vienna is where Hitler claims he developed his full anti-Semitism. Vienna was a never-ending waterfall of prejudice and racism in the early 1900's. It was like moving to the south during the Civil War and falling in love with the racism of southern whites. Hitler was all too excited to blame someone for Germany losing the war, and Jews had a big target on their backs.

Now, here's one of the more messed up parts of Hitler's early years. He had a very close relationship with his half-niece, Geli Raubal. It was even considered to be sexual. He was jealous and kept a tight leash on her, often forcing her to end any relationship she tried to have with another man. I know this is gross, but Hitler's sexuality has often been studied because it's a rather shocking piece of his life we don't know about. He was considered to be a bit of a pervert, and for good reason--many historians believe Hitler had a fetish for being urinated or defecated on before or after sexual intercourse. This was such an eyebrow-raiser that even my history professor got red in the face when he told us. His niece was believed to take part in this activity, as was his wife of two days, Eva Braun. Coincidentally, both women committed suicide.

After he heard Benito Mussolini had been captured and assassinated, Hitler took the coward's way out at the end of the war and shot himself after Eva bit on a tablet of cyanide. Their bodies were doused in gasoline and burned along with Hitler's dogs. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's close confidant, along with his wife and six children, was also shot and burned.

So Hitler was basically a pompous, fantasizing, perverted, lazy man with daddy issues in his early life. We know a little bit more about his later life during World War II, where his arrogant sadism turned into desperation as his chances of victory in the war diminished. But lets not forget that Hitler wasn't the only crazy person running the show. In the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel, a young Elie witnesses a horrific scene in which SS officers toss living infants into the air over a grave and use them as machine gun targets.

"Beautiful Beast" Irma Grese

SS officer Irma Grese was nicknamed the "Beautiful Beast" for her good looks and deadly behavior. She would often whip men in the testicles, shoot prisoners at random, unleash dogs on prisoners, and torture weak and sick women. Nazi doctors conducted experiments testing high altitude on Jewish men in order to see how high a Luftwaffe (German Air Force) plane could climb. These experiments nearly always resulted in death.

As you can see, Hitler was one psychotic nutjob that inspired an army of psychotic nutjobs. But without knowing certain bits and pieces of his life, it's hard to understand how anyone can become that big of a monster. Germany was a nation so vulnerable after World War I that anyone who had the right amount of motivation could take it over. Unfortunately, a horrible person with even worse ideals took over and brainwashed much of the country. Hell, much of Europe. Some European people had their heads so far up their asses that many who lived next to concentration camps didn't even know what they were until Allied troops made them tour the carnage after the camp's liberation. I'm not saying any one country is perfect. Certainly every country throughout history has been responsible for inhumane atrocities, but it's up to us to learn from those mistakes and never let it happen again.

"How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think." 
-Adolf Hilter