The Rise of

Dictators
Chapter 24 and 26 Notes

Part II
Hitler’s Systematic Rise, 1933- 1939
 Baby Adolf

Photo shopped picture of Baby Hitler in the

arms of Stalin with the leaders of the Allies
behind him as nurses.
Born in Austria, failed in school, dreams
of becoming an artist.
Hitler was treated severely by his father.
 Hitler’s Youth Inspires
“The Hitler Youth”
• As a boy he was abused and
beaten by his father
• His mother dies at a very young
age
• When he gains power he
attempts to mold and
raise Germany’s youth
through propaganda
program:
“The Hitler Youth”
 Young Hitler’s Dreams
of Being an Artist Die
• Twice rejected from
Viennese Art Academy
• Believed he was an
artist genius. Thus he
raged against the world
that refused to see his
greatness.
• Dodged the Austrian
draft & ran to Munich –
a “real German city” in
his eyes.
Hitler at a pre-war rally in 1914
Hitler Fights in WW I
Hitler was an enlisted man on the Western
Front of WW I
On the Western Front as a regimental runner. Fought at
Ypres, the Somme, & Passchendaele.
What would the world
have been like if Hitler
would have died in
World War I?

Portrait of Adolf Hitler during the war

Into British Private Tandey's line of fire, the battle

weary German never raised his rifle and just stared at
Tandey resigned to the inevitable.  "I took aim but
couldn't shoot a wounded man," said Tandey, "so I let
him go.“

The young German soldier nodded in thanks and the

two men took diverging paths, that day and in history. 
The man who did not shoot Hitler was himself a hero
John Tandey, the most highly decorated private British
Soldier during WWI

"I took aim but couldn't shoot a

wounded man," said Tandey, "so
I let him go."
British Prime Minister Chamberlain met with Hitler
early in his time as Chancellor in Hitler’s
Berchtesgaden or Eagle’s Nest
 National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi for short)
• 1919 – Hitler joins the
German Workers’ Party
• Party grows from 15,000
members to 55,000 in 2
years.
• Party militia known as the
SA or Storm Troops, aka
“Brownshirts,” color of their
uniform.
Hitler Reacts to Germany Losing WW I 1923 Rally
Hitler staged an armed
uprising against the
German government - The
Weimer Republic
He was jailed for a short time.
Where he wrote Mein Kampf
(“My Struggle”)

"When I returned from the War, I

brought back home with me my
experiences at the front; out of them I
built my National Socialist
community."  
He fanatically blamed the Jews,
Communists, and even Democrats for
German’s failure to win.
Economic Conditions Worsen in Germany
• 6 million unemployed by Coat of arms and flag of the
1932 German Weimar Republic

• The economic and

psychological of the
World-Wide Great
Depression made
extremist policies
popular. Communist Extremists that battle Hitler for control.

• 1930 – President
Hindenburg, the German
parliament (Reichstag) &
Weimar Republic had
little power
• Hitler was growing in
popularity. An NSDAP meeting in December 1930, with
Hitler in the center
1929 Nuremberg Rally
 Hitler becomes Chancellor
January 30, 1933
Handed power by President Von Hindenburg
Hitler’s First Speech Upon Taking Power

Click on the black area to see the video

 Totalitarian State:
A government that aims
to control the
political, economic,
social, intellectual,
and cultural lives of
it’s citizens.
"Civil rights and liberties have disappeared. Opposition to the Nazi regime has become
tantamount to suicide or worse. Free speech and free assembly are anachronisms."
 “Do we not feel once again in this hour the miracle that brought us
together? Once you heard the voice of a man, and it struck deep into
your hearts; it awakened you, and you followed this voice… When
we meet each other here, the wonder of our coming together fills us
all.
Joined together into one whole! … You come, that you may, once
in a while, gain the feeling that now we are together; we are with him
and he with us, and we are now Germany!”
- September 1936, Adolf Hitler speaks at the Nuremberg Rally
 Show the first 10 min. of
“Triumph of the Will”

Hitler with Riefenstahl in 1934. She remained a darling

of the Third Reich for the duration - and went on to make
a second notable film about the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
One of the most enduring propaganda images of the Third Reich - the
omnipotent Führer (with Himmler and Lutze) in front of 160,000 Germans
arraigned in perfect geometrical formation.

Leni Riefenstahl, with Adolf Hitler in the

background, directs the shooting of a film about
the celebration of Reich Party Day. Nuremberg,
Germany, 1936
Leni Riefenstahl chats with Heinrich Himmler during filing
at Nuremberg in September 1934. Below: A scene from her
finished "Triumph of the Will" shows women greeting Hitler
upon his arrival in Nuremberg.
“…Hitler became in 1938 the
greatest threatening force that
the democratic, freedom-
loving world faces today.”
- Time Magazine
Man of the year 1938:
Adolf Hitler
1933 Nuremberg Rally
Adolf Hitler and Nazism (Video 2:50)

Click on the black area to play the video

Reichstag Fire 1933 – Blamed on Communists, gives
Hitler massive power as Nazi party becomes majority
Communists Arrested and Killed
Nazi Book Burning Rally
Nazi Youth Bonfire
 Enabling Act 1933

Hitler’s cabinet has the authority to enact laws without the

participation of the Reichstag (German Legislature) and
gave Hitler the chance to ignore it’s constitution for four
years.
Nuremberg Laws, Sept. 1935
Anti-semitic (anti-Jewish) ideas are now turned
into law.
1. Excluded Jews from German
citizenship
2. Forbade marriage between a Jew and
non-Jewish German citizen
3. Jews were made to wear yellow Stars
of David and carry identification cards
saying they were Jewish

Images from the movie “Schindler’s List”

Winner of 7 Academy Awards, including
Best Picture; Official Holocaust Movie
 Kristallnacht – “Night of Broken Glass”
Night of rampage against Jewish.
November 9, 1938
91 Jews were murdered
25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and
placed in concentration camps.
267 synagogues were burned and
destroyed.
Business and store fronts were
vandalized and windows broken.

The interior of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin

after Kristallnacht
 “Final Solution” – Holocaust
Systematic Extermination of the Jews
Means… “Work Sets Free”
Other Dictators Who Rose to Power
Fascism: Glorifies the state above the individual
by emphasizing the need for a strong
central government led by a dictatorial
ruler. People are controlled.
Opposition suppressed.

Benito Mussolini -
Italy

As an Italian soldier during WWI

 Italian Fascism under Mussolini
“Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the
State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interest coincide with those of
the State. The Fascist conception of the State is an all-embracing; outside of it no
human or spiritual values can exist. Thus understood, fascism is totalitarian,
and the Fascist State… interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a
people.
War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the
seal of nobility on those people who have the courage to face it.”
Video: Intro Mussolini & Fascism
Joseph Stalin – Soviet Union
1922, Lenin creates Soviet Union
U.S.S.R. – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

1924 Lenin Dies, power struggle erupts

Real name was Dzhugashvili, but took Stalin as
his name – translation: Man of Steel
Methods of Stalin’s Control of the
Opposition
Purges, prison camps, secret police, state-
run press, forced labor camps, executions.
 “Stalinist”
“Death is the solution to
all problems. No man –
no problems.”
- Joseph Stalin

In the picture to the right Trotsky

is shown celebrating the 2nd
anniversary of the Russian
Revolution with Stalin.
In the picture to the right at the
bottom, Trotsky is gone.
Stalin “removes” Yezhov
 Francisco Franco - Spain

1936: Led by Franco Spanish military

forces revolted against Democracy
Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union aided
Franco in Spanish Civil War