Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Holocaust:

By Sean Copeland

            The book Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Holocaust by Linda Jacobs Altman is basically about how Hitler convinced people that doing the wrong thing was right. Hitler’s father almost changed his name to Schickelgruber, many of Hitler’s enemies made fun of him by saying “Heil Schickelgruber”. Later in life he joined a small group at a local tavern. Hitler with his great public speaking ability convinced them that he should be their leader and that they will grow and flourish.

            Hitler’s philosophy was to exterminate all Jews, Poles, Russians, all people of color and everybody with a genetic defect. This is why all Jews were sent to death or concentration camps and all people who were disabled were gassed with Zyklon B and killed. The government would tell family members of the victim that the person had an accident and were killed. Trucks went around from house to house supposedly giving people x-rays, and one of three trucks would have x-ray equipment then the other two trucks were used to store gassed victims.

            Hitler’s great speaking ability earned him top spot of the small group, and he quickly turned them around into a political super power. Hitler’s main goal was to create the perfect race in Germany so they would become the most perfect nation in the world. Hitler tried to exterminate the people who had genetic defects or mental diseases and he also attempted to exterminate the Jews. He had many rallies that millions of people attended and cheered on Hitler. Hitler had many followers, because of his great public speaking ability. Hitler would also stop at nothing to rid the world of the Jews.

            Hitler convinced people from other countries to attempt to do the same. Benito Mussolini, leader of the fascist movement in Italy, was very close to Hitler. When Mussolini was asked to define fascism he simply said, “It is action”. When Hitler was gaining power he had to become Chancellor to implement his ideas. He had to win against Hindenburg the favorite to win the election. One historian explained “Neither Hindenburg’s conscience nor his duties to the state would…permit him to turn over power to a Nazi movement that would use it for partisan purposes”.

This book was a very accurate description of Hitler’s rise to the control of Germany. It talks about how his speaking ability quickly moved him to the top and there was nobody who was going to stop him from getting there. I liked how the book recognized this about Hitler, because I believe that many people overlook the fact that he was able to trick all of these poor German citizens and soldiers into thinking that killing the Jews and mentally challenged was the right thing to do, which was clearly not the case.

            This is most likely the worst thing to ever happen in history. One man thought that they were ad and convinced many other people the same. The Jews were a very peaceful and innocent race that was wrongfully accused of being an awful group of people. This is an awful event that took place in our world’s history.