Hitler's Death

On April 30, 1945 Adolf Hitler took his life after realizing he had lost the war, but what did that mean to the world? Did his death bear any real significance? What effects did his death have on his foes, victims, followers and allies? World War II was one of the most influential wars in global history. Along with battles of attrition, another horrific method of killing came to light, genocide. Concentration camps were instilled by the Nazi's through indirect commands from Hitler to Himmler near the beginning of WWII. In Himmler's recently found diaries, there was finally written evidence of Hitler's involvement with the Final Solution. Hitler's command of Germany had many negative repercussions not only on Germany but also on the minority populations that the Nazis terrorized and the rest of the world. While some believe that Hitler's death had no real effect on the world since he and his cause had already failed before his suicide, his death and his life leading up to his suicide impacted the entire world in many ways. His death was a very significant occurrence in the twentieth century. The effect he had on the world is still present today through his followers and systematic reforms that took place in the German government after the war ended. Even today historians and psychologists make Adolf Hitler their specialty so they can try and understand the motives behind his inhumane methods.

Many mysteries surround Hitler's death, which makes his death challenging and interesting to research. For example, there were questions about whether the body Stalin obtained from the base camp was Hitler or not. Many questions followed his death that need to be answered before looking at his actual death, including whether or not Hitler was sane at the latter end of his life, why he decided to take his own life, and if the cause of his death influenced the significance of it or not. Hitler's death was clouded with confusion and was still under investigation as to whether the remains were actually Hitler himself until forensics came along. To understand his death and the significance of it, Hitler's life and the effects it had on the world must be examined as well. Hitler, in his life, was one of the most infamous and influential leaders in the world, why would his death and the way that he died bear any less significance?

Hitler was born on April 20, 1889; therefore he was fifty-six when he committed suicide. Native to Austria, Hitler didn't gain citizenship until 1932 when he decided to run for president, but lost in the elections to von Hindenburg. That same year the Nazi party dominated the elections and won 230 seats within the German government. For nominations of Reich Chancellor, for the elections in January of 1933, Franz von Papen persuaded von Hindenburg to nominate Hitler, who over maneuvered his opponents and won the elections. Soon after his victory, Hitler and other Nazi leaders started eliminating opposing political parties by sending the party officials to concentration camps (Gervasi ). Prior to his coming of power Hitler had lived as a struggling artist in Vienna. It was there that he obtained his rash and unnecessary hatred for the Jewish community. He blamed the Jews for the Germans defeat in WWI, and his biased views against them grew more negative from there. Throughout his reign, Hitler used propaganda and his mass speeches to build anti-Semitism in Germany. His hold and influence over Germany in the mid 1900's was incomparable to anything in Germany past. In November of 1923, Hitler organized the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch in hopes of forcing the Bavarian government into working with the Nazis, which would then lead to a joint march on Berlin. The attempt failed however, and Hitler was sentenced to a few years in jail. Mein Kampf, his memoirs, was written during his stay in prison.

World War II was a war unlike any other war fought in History. Over fifty million people, both soldiers and civilians, were killed during this costly war. Along with the novelty battle tactic of attrition, bloody battles meant to weaken the enemy's moral by destruction of material and military population, from the First World War, genocide was taking place in a horrific and new manner. WWII unofficially began when Hitler invaded the Rhineland in 1936. Following the invasion, Hitler annexed Austria and some of Czechoslovakia in 1938. However, it wasn't until Hitler made a non-aggression pact with Russia and invaded Poland that the Second World War began. The Germans dominated the first part of the war, but Hitler made a grave mistake when he decided to invade Russia despite the non-aggression pact. The Germans were unprepared for the bitter Russian winter, and the majority of soldiers deserted, froze, or starved to death. While the war was going on, Hitler, in 1941, started a domino effect that led to the Final Solution. The Final Solution was the annihilation of the Jewish population. It was triggered by the anti-Semitic sentiments felt by Hitler and the Germans. The Final Solution was a part of the Holocaust, concentration camps that led to staggering amounts of genocide. While the concentration and death camps were still operating, Nazis took away the lives of over an estimated eleven million people including six million Jews. The other groups targeted and sent away to concentration camps were gypsies, homosexuals, prisoners of war, and the mentally disabled (Rees). Horrific and unimaginable torture, starvation and death occurred within these camps as a result of Hitler's hatred.

Germany's ally, Japan, unknowingly turned the tables of the war to France and Great Britain favor by bombing Pearl Harbor in the United States, because the United States declared war on Japan and its allies soon after. Along with the Germans failed attempts to invade Russia and Hitler's mood becoming increasing more erratic and out of touch with those around him, the war was becoming a failure for Hitler and his supporters.

The inevitable defeat of Germany was apparent to Hitler when he committed suicide on that day in 1945. Some speculate that if Hitler had lived to see the end of the war he would have been condemned to execution instead, so why did the manner in which he died matter? It matters because his suicide shows that Hitler had given up and coped out of facing the consequences to his actions. In those last ten days of life, Hitler was unstable and distracted. He spent his last ten days at a base camp with girlfriend and rumored wife, Eva Braun. During that time he heard the news that Mussolini's mistress, Clara Petacci, and Mussolini had been executed "and their bodies were suspended by the feet in the market place of Milan to be beaten and pelted by the [Ð'...] crowd (Trevor-roper p 226). Mussolini's death