The last days of Adolf Hitler’s control over Nazi Germany started in September of 1944 as the Allied forces are moving in with deadly force; leaving the Nazi forces to retreat on the Eastern front in large numbers.
Meanwhile Hitler was poisoning himself with anti-gas pills that contained strychnine. Giving him mildly harmful affects to his progressive arteriosclerosis. A disease that hardens the muscle and loses the flexibility in the medium and large arteries in the heart, making the heart pump blood a lot more slowly. This made Hitler not as involved publicly as he used to be. This eventually became a nuisance to his fellow Generals and SS officers.
While Hitler was away from his position as Fuhrer, the famous Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Offensive) began with a German surprise attack called ‘Operation Autumn Mist’ on the advancing American army. The German army put in all possible reserves, over 200,000 infantry men with over 600 tanks to face a front of at least 80,000 American infantry men with 400 tanks. The Americans were very flustered and managed to make a strong defense and slow the Nazi’s for one month; exhausting the Nazi’s supplies and forcing them to surrender. Hitler’s last glimmer of hope to continue to expand his empire was crushed.
After failing ‘Operation Autumn Mist’, Hitler gave up hope on his country, men, and legacy; and came to the conclusion that his losses were not faulted by his strategy, judgment, or leadership, but the German people who followed his direct orders. As a punishment of failing to their Country, Hitler decided if he was to be defeated in this war; then his people would do the same. The Axis powers in the Eastern front would keep fighting.
Hitler, still fuming from the...
... middle of paper ...
...some of the staff, drank champagne, and eating sandwiches. Just before the ceremony, Hitler called for his secretary and wanted him to take down some dictation. Hitler made his private testament and political testament that night and asked for all of his private documents in his offices all over Germany burned.
Early the next day, there was much discussion between the staff and Hitler about the best way to commit suicide. Most of the staff members were given brass cased tablets containing prussic acid that were supplied by the SS surgeon, Dr. Ludwig Stumpfire. Hitler was now having doubts that the tablets would work and had on of the tablets tested of his dog, Blondi. She died almost instantly after swallowing the tablet. Later that night, Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler committed suicide; Braun with a prussic acid tablet and Hitler with a bullet hole to the temple.
The prelude to the Battle of the Bulge began on a winter day in mid-December of 1944. Three powerful German divisions, were the last German offensives in the west at that time during World War II. They began after the Normandy invasion in June 1944. Allied had forces swept rapidly through France but became stalled along the German border earlier that year in September. On December 16, 1944 taking advantage of the weather, which kept the Allied aircraft on the ground, the Germans launched a counteroffensive through the semi-mountainous and heavily-forested Ardennes region in Germany, and advanced 31 miles into Belgium and northern Luxembourg near the Meuse River. Their goal was to trap four allied armies, divide the Americans and the British to force negotiated peace along the western front, and retake the vital seaport of Antwerp in Belgium. Thinking the Ardennes was the least likely spot for a German offensive, American staff commander chose to keep the thin line, so that manpower might concentrate on offensives north and south of the Ardennes known as the "bulge" in the Allied lines. These American lines were thinly held by three divisions in the Allied Army and part of a forth division, while fifth division was making a local attack and the sixth division was in reserve. Division sectors were more than double the width of normal defensive fronts, therefore there were more men scattered along a larger area. The German advance was halted near the Meuse River in late December. Even though the German Offensive achieved total surprise, nowhere did the American troops give ground without a fight. Within three days, the determined American stand and the arrival of powerful reinforcements insured that the ambitious German goal was far beyond reach. In snow and sub-freezing temperatures the Germans fell short of their interim objective- to reach the rambling Meuse River on the edge of the Ardennes. But they managed to avoid being cut off by an Allied Pincer movement.
Hitler and the Nazi Party's Total Control Over the Lives of German People from 1933-1945
Soon after joining the Nazi Party Dr. Mengele is believed to have worked as a medical personnel that was concentrated in the Central Immigration Office. In this time period the idea of the Aryan Race was still being fully developed. Hitler would soon make his idea of a “final solution” a reality. This included “the extermination of the Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, communists, and other undesirables” (Killer File). Mengele was later wounded while on campaign and later returned to Germany in January of 1943. In April of 1943 Josef Mengele was appointed as an SS captain of the Nazi party and was soon transferred to Auschwitz (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Most people don’t realize that Josef Mengele was not the only doctor at Auschwitz nor was he the highest ranking physician there. Acc...
Although, World War II lasted 6 years, the Battle of the Bulge with its planning, skills, and landings marked the “beginning of the end.” The Battle of the Bulge started on December 16, 1944 and was a last ditch attempt started by Adolf Hitler to separate Britain, France, and America into two. Hitler was sure that the Allies- Britain, France, and America- were not strong enough for the German forces and that he could disperse their coalition and cut off the Allies. Adolf’s plan was to launch an immense attack using three armies. He wanted to abolish, or take a huge port, of Ahtwerp which is where the Allies got a large portion of their supplies. While his plan was a very illogical plan, he believed that it would work. Germany had been in a retreat since D-Day and was looking for some way or somehow to defeat to Allies (Trueman),
The rise of Hitler and the Third Reich marked the end of the Weimar Republic. It took Hitler only thirty days to go from an outsider looking in to the supreme leader of Germany. After a series of laws were passed, the enabling act among them, Hitler has virtually unlimited power. Germany then slowly transformed form a democracy to a dictatorship.
However, when confronted with a strict policy of appeasement, by both the French and the English, the stage was set for a second World War. Taylor constructs a powerful and effective argument by expelling certain dogmas that painted Hitler as a madman, and by evaluating historical events as a body of actions and reactions, disagreeing with the common idea that the Axis had a specific program from the start. The book begins with the conclusion of the First World War, by exploring the idea that critical mistakes made then made a second war likely, yet not inevitable. Taylor points out that although Germany was defeated on the Western front, “Russia fell out of Europe and ceased to exist, for the time being, as a Great Power. The constellation of Europe was profoundly changed—and to Germany’s advantage.”
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was one of the most powerful and infamous dictators of the 20th century. After World War I, he rose to power in the National Socialist German Workers Party, taking control of the German government in 1933. His establishment of concentration camps to inter Jews and other groups he believed to be a threat to Aryan supremacy resulted in the death of more than 6 million people in the Holocaust. His attack on Poland in 1939 started World War II, and by 1941 Germany occupied much of Europe and North Africa. The tide of the war turned following an invasion of Russian and the U.S. entry into battle, and Hitler killed himself shortly before Germany was defeated.
In the spring of 1940 Europe was enveloped in war. The German military machine had already conquered Poland, Denmark, and Norway. However, not content with northern and eastern expansion, Adolf Hitler wanted to control the western countries in Europe. Hitler had long been obsessed with attacking and controlling France. After their defeat in World War I, the German people, government, and military were humiliated by the enormous post war sanctions leveraged against them from the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler wanted to defeat and humiliate the French people in the same way that his country had to experience. For him, revenge was necessary. The German plan was to swing into France using a new tactic know as Blitzkrieg or “Lightning War”. Blitzkrieg used speed and surprise along with highly concentrated tank corps, supported by mechanized infantry and airplanes.
In 1941, Hitler invaded Russia in the winter, attempting to take Moscow. They failed, but Russia was weakened. In 1943, Italy was defeated and surrendered to The Allies. From there on out, Germany began to lose the war. The Nazis began destroying their camps, killing the people that they could and moving the rest to the camps in Germany. HItler knew he was going down, so he was trying to initiate as much of his final solution as he could.
"Rise of Hitler: War Ends with German Defeat." The History Place. The History Place, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. .
In 1939, German officials began to build gas chambers in asylums, first to kill the groups of mentally ill and handicap patients in a program called T-4. Then in 1941, to kill groups from the concentration camps, the 14f13 program, with carbon monoxide. The T-4 program killed over 70,000 people. Also that year, the Germans developed mobile gas chambers (gas vans) that were used on the Russian front over two million victims, a slow and agonizing death. Later on that year they began experimenting with Zyklon B as a killing agent. Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Hoss claimed that he adopted Zyklon B because it ensured a quick and easy death for the victims, even though that claim was never supported by the evidence (Shelton, 2005, p. 99).
While other doctors would often get themselves drunk in order to forget what they have done, Josef Mengele would walk into work with a smile (“Josef Mengele, The Cruelest Doctor in the Holocaust,” n.d.). Often known as “The Angel of Death” (“Nazi Experiments,” n.d.), Josef Mengele would often work with kids, and before he performed experiments on them, he would try to gain their trust. He would give them toys and play with them. Many kids there ended up calling him “Uncle Mengele” (“Josef Mengele,” n.d.). However, this relationship would not last for long. Soon he would start to perform his experiments. Josef Mengele had a fascination with twins. He thought experimenting with them would help cure several diseases. This led to him performing many controversial experiments. These included stitching twins together, dissecting them, and giving them blood transfusions. In addition to this, he would often inject chemicals into his victim's eyes in an attempt to change their eye color (“Josef Mengele: The Cruelest Doctor in the Holocaust,” n.d.). Because of his actions, Josef Mengele became the most infamous and feared person in
In the summer of 1942 Hitler was in a happier mood than at any time since the fall of France. “The Russian is finished,” Hitler told his Chief of Staff on July 20 (Clark 209). The Germans were coming off three victories at Kerch, Kharkov, and Sebastopol. In addition they continued to gain ground in the Caucasus
Hitler’s Last Days is yet another gem written by the mastermind of history, Bill O’Reilly. How O’Reilly wrote this book with such great detail and information will may never be discovered. The details in the book are nothing short of extraordinary. O’Reilly makes the reader act like a US Official reading over battle operations and reviews. He adds personal letters from various officers around the war. He makes it feel like the reader is sitting next to Adolf Hitler in his war room, going over all Nazi battle plans. Although the book entitles the death of Adolf Hitler, it also adds detailed accounts of The Battle of the Bulge and other major points in the final portion of World War II.
During World War II, Hitler rounded up people who were not part of the Aryan Race and sent them to concentration camps; in those camps, some of those people served as test subjects for medical experimentation. These experiments separate into three categories. The first type were “experiments aimed at facilitating the survival of Axis military personnel,” (Museum). Next, the “experimentation aimed at developing and testing pharmaceuticals and treatment methods for injuries and illnesses which German military and occupation personnel encountered in the field” (Museum). Finally, the “[experimentations] sought to advance the racial and ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview” (Museum). In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, Dr. Mengele conducted at least two of the selections that Elie had to watch and go through, but it is different because in Night, Elie Wiesel was not aware of the experiments and only saw Dr. Mengele during the selections. Dr. Mengele and other SS doctors received the power to test various medical experiments on Jews, Gypsies, war prisoners, the unwanted, and others that Hitler sent to concentration camps. Some were done for science and others were just to satisfy the doctor's interests.