Essay: The loss of World War I was a turning point for Hitler

Hitler had a troubled life, he tried to push through it, but his surroundings where constantly letting him down. Eventually he took out his anger in events such as the Crystal Night and the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler did it on the people that he felt caused any conflict with his idea of a quintessential life. An example of this would be the loss of World War I. Hitler felt as if his rage was justified because of Germany’s loss in WW1 and the Treaty of Versailles. Adolf Hitler’s path to leadership was inspired by World War I.
As a growing child, Hitler was led down a bumpy road due to his complicated relationship with his family, school, and art. He didn’t really like his father, Alois Hitler Sr., because of his high amount of discipline. He adored and loved his mom, Klara Hitler, but sadly his love for her crashed and burned when she died on December 21, 1907. She died due to a breast cancer treatment in which her mastectomy incisions were opened and large doses of iodoform-soaked gauze were applied directly to the tissue. This paralyzed her throat causing her to not be able to swallow. Hitler felt devastated after this event however he was even more frustrated since he was left under the heavy supervision by his school. School also was not his favorite. Hitler attended several primary schools but when he moved to Lamach he attended the Catholic Benedictine monastery school. He only really liked some classes and was known as a ring leader. His half brother, Alois, even said that Hitler acted short tempered and spoiled. A few years later, Hitler moved again to a village named Leonding. He attended a school there in which he found the subjects easy to pass with very little effort put forth. He also discovered a passion for art. When it was time for Hitler to go into either technical or classical school, he wanted to go to a classical school to pursue art, yet he lost in an argument to his father and was forced to go to technical so he could follow in his father’s footsteps. Although, Hitler continued to have a love for art because he felt as if it was the answer to all of his problems. Unfortunately, he could only paint portraits, so it was a problem that he couldn’t paint or draw people well at all. When he finally applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Verona to continue with his passions, he was rejected. This led him to a very military based life.
After Germany lost World War I, Hitler felt furious. He felt betrayed by the jews and planted the blame for Germany’s loss on them. When Hitler started fighting in World War I, he had finally found something that he felt gave him some meaning. He jumped to the chance to volunteer for the war in which he thought would be a quick and exciting experience. He actually turned out to do quite well in the war, even managing to win 5 awards such as the Iron Cross 1st Class. As the war went on, it was like a never ending bloodbath that caused the downfall of old European culture. Soon Germany also started to be turned against and was not doing very well. Hitler started to get very depressed due to this. One day in October 1918, Hitler was blinded by a British chlorine gas attack. He was sent home to a very dreary country. He sat in his hospital bed bursting with depression and anxiety until November 10, 1918 when a man came and told everyone the news that the Kaiser and the House of Hohenzollern had fallen and that Germany was now a republic. The war had finally ended but not the way Hitler had hoped it would. Hitler felt as if he was stabbed in the back by the Jews. He put all of the blame on them and the Marxist, since he could not swallow the defeat himself. He thought they were the cause of everything bad since the Jews were historically blamed for killing christ. Overall the Jews were looked down upon and he thought they were undermining war effort, so Hitler felt that is was right to blame them.
Hitler had stayed in the German Army and was given the rank Corporal Adolf Hitler. He was an undercover agent and was sent out to investigate the German Workers’ Party. He was sent out due to the army’s interest in the ‘Workers’ factor of the German Workers’ Party. The German army was now involved in demolishing Marxist uprisings. Hitler went to a German Workers’ Party and ended up giving a very direct, forceful speech that intrigued the one of the founders of the party. Hitler was then asked to join the party and said yes due to to his idea of being able to mold the party into something more concrete. Hitler put a great amount of work into this party with the goal of making it succeed. Soon, the party’s advertisements got around and more and more people started attending the meetings. Hitler was the big attraction at them with his inspiring and direct speeches against the Treaty of Versailles and his anti-semitic denunciations against the Jews in which he blamed them for many event. Eventually, Hitler was named the leader of the now called Nazi party because he used their weaknesses to his advantage.
Through 1921 and 1923, Germany was presented with some financial problems, which caused Hitler to think about taking over Germany. Countries including France and Britain forced Germany to pay war reparations. This caused the German Marx to be worth nothing. It drained everything from the Germans. This angered Hitler and the Nazis decided it was their time to strike. Hitler came up with an idea to kidnap the Bavarian government and hold them at gunpoint, convincing them to accept Hitler as their leader. Then with the help of  Erich Ludendorff, they would pre-claim a revolt to demolish the German democratic government. This plan eventually foiled when Hitler left the Munich Beer Hall to go solve another problem. Later, Hitler was found in his attic by the police and taken to get a public trial. He got a short amount of time in jail and the judges almost didn’t plead him guilty due to the sympathy they had for him. Hitler gained more and more followers by controlling the press. Hitler wrote the book, Mein Kampf, which stated all of his ideas and plans for World War II. The main ideas of the book were based on how he felt about the Jews and his plans for Germany. In the book, Hitler shares how he feels that the Marxists and Jewish people should be blamed for the failures of World War I. He also shares his ideas of expanding Germany to create more living space. Another idea that Hitler stated in his book is that Germany needed a strong central leader to restore power to Germany. All of these ideas appealed to the public causing Hitler to become a highly followed leader.
Hitler took a great amount of hate out on people that he felt had ‘differences’. He mainly despised them due to their acts of bringing down society. These people included, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, blacks, the physically and mentally disabled. They also included,  political opponents of the Nazis, Communists and Social Democrats, dissenting clergy, resistance fighters, prisoners of war, Slavic peoples, and many individuals from the artistic communities whose opinions and works Hitler didn’t feel where worthy. He wanted to take action on these people, because he felt as if they needed to be dragged down in a way so they didn’t morp him and others into people like them. He became the chancellor of Germany and had a great amount of followers. Hitler then set a goal to become dictator. On the night of November 9th until the early morning of November 10th, 1938, there was an event named the Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass. This was a very tragic night in which the burning and destroying of hundreds of Jewish shops and synagogues occurred under Hitler. People would break into Jewish peoples home and kill the men and torture the women and children. Then they would destroy stores, vandalize and burn many things. About 25,000 Jewish men were dragged off to Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and other concentration camps. They were mistreated badly by SS guards, sometimes they would even choose Jews at random to beat to death. About 2,500 Jews had died from beatings, concentration camps, and suicides.
In conclusion, the loss of World War I was Hitler’s main turning point down this dark road. His rough childhood was just the beginning. Then came other events of importance to Hitler that just did not work out, like the Beer Hall Putsch. Which just made Hitler’s life so difficult and so easy for him to blame on others. In our world now, we do have unfortunate things that happen, but what Hitler has done will never be forgotten.