Commentary by Dr. Ursula A. Falk The Beast Named Hitler Adolf Hitler, a name that lives in infamy! He was born on April 20, 1889, in Gasthof zum Pommer, an inn, in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, the fourth of Alois and Klara Hitler’s six children. Hitler’s father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber, which was his mother’s maiden name. Johann Georg Hiedler married Maria, allegedly was his father. When Alois was 39 he took the surname Hitler. Alois tried unsuccessfully to farm and keep bees. As a child, Hitler played Cowboys and Indians and became fixated on war after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War. By 1897 the family moved to Lambach, where Hitler attended a Catholic school where the swastika was a symbol engraved in the Benedictine cloister walls. In 1900, Hitler’s younger brother Edmund died of measles, which changed his outlook. He became morose and angry and, although previously good student, he constantly battled his father and his teachers. Hitler was close to his mother but had a troubled relationship with his authoritarian father, who frequently beat him. Alois wanted to have his son become an Austrian customs official like he had at one time been but to no avail. Hitler was sent to technical high school in Linz, where he failed his first year in hopes that he could follow his own dreams. German nationalism became an obsession for Hitler, a way to rebel against his father, who proudly served the Austrian government. Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany, opposing his father who had served Austria. At age fourteen, after his father's death, he became so rebellious that he was thrown out of high school. At fifteen he was sent to another high school, from which he was also expelled for his behavior, never to go to school again. He had been drinking with peers, and tore up a school certificate and used it as toilet paper. Hitler took his first Holy Communion at age 15. At 16 he began living a bohemian life in Vienna. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts as his painting was “unfit”; he was not good enough to be a successful painter. Hitler’s mother died in 1907 of breast cancer at age forty-seven. She had been treated by a Jewish physician. Hitler became an anti-Semite in Vienna, which had a large Jewish population, many of whom had escaped the pogroms in Russia. It was reported by those who knew Hitler that he was a hater of Jews long before that time. Hitler did not hesitate to accept meals in respectable Jewish homes nor did he refuse to let these people help him to sell his paintings. In his poor six years in Vienna, Hitler developed his extreme hate of Jews He discovered his remarkable talent for speech that used grand Germanic metaphors, and he developed his view about managing a totalitarian state. Hitler was influenced by the hateful writings of Martin Luther. Hitler claimed that the Jews were enemies of the Aryan race. He held them responsible for every possible mishap that occurred anytime anywhere. A poem that described Hitler’s outpourings was: “Schuld am Elend sagt er Schuld am Leid, sagt er Schuld wenn’s regent, sagt er Schuld wenn’s schneit, sagt er Schuld an allem, sagt er voller Wut, sagt er Schuld alleine, sagt er ist der JUD” (The rain, the misery, the snow, any misery that occurs is caused by the Jew!) Hitler received the final part of his father’s estate when he was twenty- four years of age and at that time he moved to Munich to become a “real” German. The move helped him to escape the military service for Austria. The Austrian authorities finally arrested him but he was ultimately able to leave and gain German citizenship. When the First World War began, Adolf was granted enlistment in the Bavarian army. This occurred in World War I. He did receive some recognition for “bravery” but was never considered for a promotion beyond the rank of corporal since he was considered to have no leadership abilities. Hitler became a German citizen in 1932. Hitler believed he could “Save Germany”. In 1923 the German economy collapsed into hyperinflation. Most Germans lost everything they had. It took four billion “Mark” to get one loaf of bread. This misfortune was causelessly blamed on the Jewish people, who also had lost everything also along with their fellow countrymen. Hitler felt that this was the right time for a revolution. He appointed himself the new political master of Bavaria. He rounded up three thousand men and they created mayhem. The police fired at them, Hitler’s would be revolution failed, and he was jailed for nine months (with an original sentence of five years). His compatriots marched in and out of the prison to visit him daily and presents abounded for Hitler. His ideology strengthened in prison; he wrote his book Mein Kampf there and he formulated his plans. It was as a result of the Beer Hall Putsch which was intended to overthrow the Bavarian (and eventually the German) government that he spent time in prison. The depression, inflation, and lack of work assisted Adolf in taking over the German government (The Great Depression hit Germany in 1930). In January 1933 Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. People were subsequently forced to vote for “Herr Fuhrer”. His military henchmen observed the voting stations and the public was forced to cast their votes for him. Hitler utilized the fear of poverty, of further depression, and of hunger to persuade people to follow his dictates. The further terror of Communists and other “enemies” of the State as well as his gift of glowing speeches, mindless promises, fear and force, and the joy of tormenting six million innocent Jewish citizens, scapegoats for his hatred, created the sadist leader of force and destruction, the brutal psychopath called Adolf Hitler! Lehitraot. Dr. Ursula A. Falk is a psychotherapist in private practice and the author of several books and articles.