Was Hitler a Great Leader or a Monster?

To fully answer this question one must look at the underlying philosophies behind Hitler's leadership. What did he stand for and did his ideologies have any redeeming characteristics? Indisputably he had an ability to lead and motivate. He was revered with almost God Ð'- like fanaticisms by his people. This essay will set out to establish the basis of his leadership and within that framework, the nature of the man and his vision for the world.

Hitler was in many ways a great leader and his influence on the German people was immense; he used his motivational and powerful speaking abilities to gain support and popularity. Hitler knew how to appeal to people's baser instincts and made use of their fears and insecurities. He could do that, however, only because they were willing to be led, even though his programme was one of hatred and violence. Hitler was extremely Anti-Semetic and when Germany was in the state of social instability and crisis Hitler was able to easily deflect that frustration on to the Jews. After the economic and social hardship of the Great Depression Hitler began to rebuild Germany. He saw a nation of unemployed and hungry citizens and promised them economic prosperity in return for absolute power. Hitler was convinced Germany's past suffering was due to the Jewish population, and as a result initiated a campaign of hatred and isolation towards the nation's Jewish community. Hitler's propaganda machine promoted the theory that the Aryan race was superior to any other. Jews, Negroes and any other race that did not satisfy Hitler's Aryan mould were to be treated as lesser beings.

One of Hitler's many ambitions for Germany was to achieve total Aryan supremacy. Hitler wanted to make all Germans perfect physical specimens. All of them tall and strong with blue eyes and blond hair though he himself was short, with brown eyes and hair. Hitler claimed that the Germans were the purest Aryans and therefore superior to all other peoples. Hitler made sure that all Germans knew this, he told the German people what they wanted to hear, that they were in fact the master race and that they were superior to any other persons. Although many were opposed to Hitler's idea of Aryan supremacy the German people supported him enthusiastically regardless.

Hitler took this hatred he possessed for the Jews and his pursues of Aryan supremacy to an extensive degree. Between 1939-1945 Hitler took action, extermination, or death camps were established for the sole purpose of killing men, women, and children. Jews were not the only victims of the Nazis during World War II, The Nazis also imprisoned and killed people who opposed their regime on grounds of their ideology; Roma (Gypsies); Germans who were mentally impaired or physically disabled; homosexuals; and captured Soviet soldiers. Heinous crimes inflicted upon the prisoners within the concentration camps and during Hitler's reign were intense beyond belief. So called camp doctors would torture and inflict incredible suffering on Jewish children, Gypsy children and many others. Patients were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to various other traumas. Thousands of Jewish and Gypsy women were subjected