Adolf Hitler

Apr 20, 1889. German dictator, obsessed with superiority of the “Aryan race.” Hitler was born at Braunau am Inn, Austria. He rose in politics (despite a brief time in prison during which he wrote Mein Kampf) quickly as leader of the Nazis, feeding on German anger over the economy and WWI defeat. He also fanned violent anti-Semitism, which later resulted in millions of Jewish deaths in concentration camps. A German plebiscite vested sole executive power in Führer Adolf Hitler Aug 19, 1934. In seeking to increase German power, he started WWII in 1939. Facing certain defeat by the Allied Forces, he shot himself Apr 30, 1945, in a Berlin bunker where he had been hiding for more than three months.

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