When people think of World War II, they think of Hitler and the Holocaust, but rarely how all the chaos started. This essay will show how Hitler came to power and what events ultimately led to the Holocaust. After the First World War, Germany was in chaos. For starters, during the war, merchant ships were kept out of German ports by Allied warships, resulting in many shortages. These shortages mainly included food and coal, which left people hungry and frozen in their homes, there was also a shortage of soap which made it almost impossible for Germans to keep themselves clean. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay All this led to illnesses that claimed the lives of 40,000 Germans as the flu spread to Europe. The Keizar didn't listen to what the people wanted, even though there were many ways he would have improved their lives. This led to public opinion turning against him. “In October 1918 the leaders of the German navy ordered the Kiel fleet to sea for battle” (Brooman 23). But two sailors on two different ships refused the order and were both arrested. It only makes things worse. The other Kiel sailors gathered to protest because they feared that their comrades would be shot for mutiny. Shortly afterwards workers and soldiers joined them. They set up a council to manage the city. Hitler gained power in Germany for four main reasons, including the fact that power was divided into rivalries, the conflicting presence of the Nazis in Germany, the parties and the president offered him the position of Chancellor, but above all because of the effects that the Great Depression took its toll on him. the economy of Germany. The Weimar government had many weaknesses, including the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and conflict with communists, conservatives, and right-wing parties. After Germany's defeat, the Kaiser fled on November 9, and his place was taken by Friedrich Ebert, the leader of Germany's largest socialist party. He immediately worked to give the German people what they wanted. On November 11, 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was signed which sanctioned the surrender to the Allies and officially ended the war. Ultimately the treaty ended up hurting Germany more than it helped. Germany lost a lot of land and had to pay reparations to its former enemies. The Germans were ashamed of how they had surrendered and lost the war. Ebert also improved living conditions, starting with reducing working hours, helping the unemployed, increasing food supplies, and allowing free speech and elections for parliament (Brooman 23). These changes made much of the German people happier, except for a group of communists called the Spartacus League who did not agree with everything Ebert said or did (Brooman 23). The Spartacus League wanted Germany to be governed by workers' and soldiers' councils instead of parliament. They initially attempted to take power by starting a revolution, going around the streets shooting and taking control of important buildings by force on January 5, 1919. The socialist government responded by using ex-soldiers (right-wing groups) and many other violence with which reconquered the buildings taken by the Spartacists and killed the leaders of their groups. Soon after, Ebert held elections for parliament. His party called Social Democrats got the most votes. On February 11, 1919, the new parliament met in the city of Weimar and first named Ebert president of Germany (Brooman 23). Many groups such as communists, conservatives and right-wing parties still existedagainst democracy. Every time the economy collapsed, support for these groups increased. One of the main reasons for the Nazi success was inflation, the collapse of the US stock market and the Great Depression. Germany struggled with money because instead of raising wartime taxes as many other countries did to pay for the war, they made printed money. That money soon lost its value. Things started getting more and more expensive. To solve this problem the United States lent $200 million to Germany for its economy to recover (Beck 471). In 1929 the US economy collapsed due to wealth distribution, overproduction, trade and agriculture. When the US economy collapsed, so did the German economy, the US wanted their money back from Germany, causing German companies to go bankrupt and more people to be employed, this would be called the Great Depression (Beck 472 ). Germany was one of the countries hardest hit by the Depression, six million workers out of a population of sixty-four million were unemployed in 1933 (Brooman 42). The Depression changed the Germans, they were unemployed and hungry, which made them angry. to the government. Germans soon began to support parties that promised to end the economic depression if they were elected to parliament. There was one group that was the most popular and most convincing party of all. The National Socialist Party, better known as the Nazi Party, promised jobs to the people if they were elected to power, just as many other parties did. And people who weren't unemployed often voted for them because they didn't want communism. What led Hitler to become Chancellor in 1933 was because he was a great public speaker and because the Nazis spread their ideas through propaganda. Hitler managed to persuade crowds of people that his ideas were correct. He began his speeches by listing all the things that were wrong in Germany and everywhere else in the world, speaking louder and louder as the speech went on, and he always ended his speeches by asking “and whose the fault of this? ” to which the crowd would respond “it's all / the fault / of the Jews.” ” (Brooman 52). Another method used by the Nazis to gain power was propaganda (changing the way people think through advertising). They used slogans instead of detailed policies. The slogans spoke of a return to the traditional customs of Germany and to unite the Germans behind a single leader. Their policies on returning to traditional methods were never criticized because they were never clear enough about what they meant in terms of policies. The industrialists began to criticize the Nazi plans to nationalize industry, the Nazis simply abandoned that policy. Whenever they could, they found ways to spread their beliefs that Jews, Communists, Weimar politicians, and the Treaty of Versailles were the cause of Germany's problems (Walsh 153). their ideas through the eight newspapers they own, pamphlets and political posters. One of the posters shows a family, there are a son and a father sitting at a table both looking disappointed and frustrated and a woman holding a child behind her. looking very sad with a headline that reads: “Women! Millions of men are out of work. Millions of children have no future. Save our German families. Vote for Adolf Hitler!” (Brooman 55). The oratory skills of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler and the use of propaganda encouraged people to vote for the Nazis. Hitler was invited to power because leaders like Hindenburg believed they could limit.
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