By Julia Blackett

Adolf Hitler was born to Alois Hitler and Klara Plzl on April 20th 1889. He was the fourth child of six but his older siblings had died in infancy. In 1892, when Hitler was only three, his family moved from Austria to Passau in Germany. For the next several years, his family frequently moved around Germany until, in 1897, Hitlers family moved permanently to Leonding. As an eight year old boy, Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir and had thought about becoming a priest. In 1900, Alois Hitler sent his son to the Realschule where he could study to follow his fathers footsteps into the customs bureau. But Hitler didnt want to work in customs; he wanted to be an artist so he did badly in school in hopes that his father would let him go to a regular school to follow his artist dreams. When his father died in 1903, he quit school. Out of school, Hitler worked as a labourer and lived off his mothers funds until she eventually passed away. He applied twice to the School of fine Arts but was rejected both times because of his unfitness for painting. In 1909, Hitler ran out of money. He moved into a homeless shelter in 1910 until he received his fathers estate in 1913 and moved to Munich.

Hitler and WW1

When war was declared on Germany, Hitler (25 years old at the time) was one of the first people to volunteer to go and fight for his country in the war. His interest in warfare made him eager to go and fight in the army. Like all other men, Hitler thought that the war would be short but he hoped that he would get to see some excitement during it. However, Hitler was unlike other men in the ways that he did not talk about women or complain about the food and the conditions, he did not receive

DID YOU KNOW?

Hitlers interest in warfare started at a young age when he found a picture book of the FrancoPrussian war in his fathers belongings Hitler volunteered to be part of the German army the day after war was declared!! Hitler refused to participate in the Christmas truce

packages from home, and never asked for leave from the war but, most of all, he did not want for the war to end. Hitler was originally enlisted into a Bavarian Regiment. He was considered a very lucky man after their first assignment where 2,500 of the 3,000 men in his regiment were killed and he escaped with only a couple of scratches. After a while, Hitler became known among soldiers because of his knack for escaping serious injury throughout the war. Often he would glance at the spot on the battlefield that he had just left to see it explode and injure or kill those who were near it. Hitler was very eager to participate in the war and would volunteer for the most dangerous assignments. He served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium during many of the major battles including The First Battle of Ypres, The Battle of Arras, The Battle of Passchendaele and The Battle of the Somme where he was wounded by a bullet in the leg. In 1914, Hitler received the Iron Cross, Second Class, an award that recognised Hitler for his bravery throughout the war. In May of 1918, Hitler received the Black Wound Badge, DID YOU KNOW??? which was awarded to any German soldier who was wounded or frostbitten during the war. In August of 1918, Hugo Gutmann recommended that Hitler Hitlers hatred of Jewish receive the Iron Cross, First Class, which was rarely awarded to someone that people could have was at Hitlers rank however, it is believed that it was Hitlers frequent started when a Jewish interactions among senior soldiers when he was working at the regimental doctor unsuccessfully headquarters that may have gotten him this award as opposed to his actions. treated his mother for a Hitler was devastated when the war came to an end. He had made some great tumor. She died after friends and had finally found a place where he belonged. He returned to several months of painful Munich and attempted to stay in the German army for as long as possible. He treatment with was employed as a V-man, a job where he was to visit as many political dangerous medicine from organisations as possible to find out where they stood. Hitler also worked in her Jewish doctor. the Education department of the army to educate the returning soldiers about the dangers of communism, socialism and pacifism.

It is said that WW1 helped to create the monster that dictated Germany and the Nazi party during the Second World War. When Hitler found out that Germany had lost the war, he was in a hospital recovering from a temporary blindness caused by gas. Hitlers anger that Germany had lost could very well be part of the reason that he went on to become what he did. He believed that Germany was the country that was destined to dominate the 20th century. By the time Hitlers eyesight was restored, he fully believed that it was the fault of Jewish soldiers that they had lost the war.