The story begins with Hitler as the leader of the National Socialists in post-war Germany. The National Socialists or Nazis, under which moniker they would become famous, were a small, Bavarian fringe party who attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic in a Munich beer hall in 1923. After its dismal failure, Hitler was sentenced to prison where he wrote Mien Kampf, a quasi-autobiography and his justification of his future actions. This book provides a v

aluable insight into his mind that few had at the outbreak of World War II. In it he states, "Only adequately large space on this earth assures a nation freedom of existence." This may or may not have been a legitimate statement but it was crucial. For through his drive to achieve this, he precipitate World War II.

With his assumption of power in January 1933, Hitler immediately set about remaking Germany in his image. Discarding all previous arms-limitation treaties, he moved to build the German military into one of the most powerful in the world. Hitler assumed, quite correctly, that up to a certain point, the main European powers, Great Britain and France, would let him facilitate many bold and provocative political actions. They, especially Great Britain, felt guilty about the harsh penalties imposed on the German nation by the Versailles Treaty so they had few qualms when Hitler publicly disavowed it in 1935.

Now Hitler honestly believed that the French and the British would never move against him and he set his eyes on a new victim, Poland. Invading Poland on September 1, 1939, he and his close advisors were very surprised and dismayed to find that the French and the British had declared war on Germany. After watching them back down for so long, he could not believe their sudden change of heart. Still with the recently signed Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact coupled with incredibly fast German advances throughout Poland, the issue was decided far before any action could be taken against the Germans. Then, under the guidance of a plan drafted by a young General Manstein, after the rapid occupation of both Denmark and Norway, the Germans seized the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in a bold move to destroy the fruit of the British and French armies.

The most amazing aspect of this quasi-fatalism Hitler displayed was that he had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in late August 1941 by not allowing his panzer and panzer-grenadier corps to move east to victory. Units, that after destroying eight of the nine Soviet armies would have faced only token opposition on the road to Moscow. Instead, he ordered them to halt for two entire months. Even then, they almost made it to Moscow. Suffice to say that if this had happened, Germany would almost certainly have won the war in Europe and a new very dark age would have descended over occupied Europe. Fortunately, for the world at large and the people of Europe, Hitler lost his nerve at the last moment and the unstoppable German colossus was defeated by its own master.

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Approximate Word count = 2217
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)