The Effective Leadership Of Adolf Hitler

From 1939 to 1945 the world was involved in a war that would change history. It is safe to say that World War Two was one of the most prominent wars throughout history. Many of the world’s powerful countries were involved. The Allies fought together to defeat an evil dictator. The “Big Three” included the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Other countries were involved but these three countries were credited for liberating the Jews. Germany was not a powerful country when Hitler decided to take control. The Nazis claimed they rescued the country from becoming absolute chaos. The Allies, who included the Big Three, and Axis Powers, who were Germany, Italy, and Japan battled generally in Eastern Europe. What is impressive is that a miniscule country was able to annex many parts of Europe. After six treacherous years, Germany was finally defeated. During World War Two, Germany was under the control of Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, in Austria and took over Germany in 1933. He dropped out of school to become an artist but soon figured out it wasn’t a fit career, eventually leading him to rule Germany. He had a specific vision for the future of Germany and it did not include Jews. He believed the Aryans were the pure race and should not integrate with other races. Not only was he anti-Semitic, he detested homosexuals, blacks, handicapped, and gypsies. His vision was to destroy the parasites of Germany by vastly executing them. Hitler was great leader because he deceived world leaders, used Aryan youth to his advantage, and took absolute control of mass media.

It is said that World War Two could have been completely avoided if the Allies did not appease Hitler. “Neville Chamberlin, who was appointed Prime Minister of Britain, felt appeasement was an urgent necessity and he followed this policy with a single-minded determination lacking in any of his predecessors” (Wistrich, 98). An agreement was signed in the early morning of 30 September under the terms of which the Germans were to occupy the Sudetenland between 1 and 10 October. Britain believed that money should not be spent on war, but on social welfare programs benefiting the country. Since the Prime Minister of Britain felt it was necessary to appease and avoid any confrontation, other countries followed his lead. “Although Chamberlain believed that the United States were isolationists, and did not like the Soviet Union, he felt they would support him with the decisions he made with Germany and Italy” (Buchanan, 65). Hitler would not have gained the power that he did if the countries confronted him when they had the opportunity. Chamberlain felt that “Hitler and Mussolini were at heart equally practical men with whom it was possible to negotiate in good faith” (Granatstein, 234). Hitler took advantage of the Prime Minister’s ignorance. Chamberlain and the rest of the world would soon discover the degree of immorality Mussolini and Hitler had possessed.

The world was blindsided with the discovery that Hitler was persecuting Jews in Germany. It is obvious that leaders around the world knew about the suffering in Germany, but not to the certain extent that they later discovered. “Photographs of mass graves and mass murder, smuggled out under the most dangerous of circumstances, were also classified as secret.” (Darity) Is it possible that the Allies were unaware?  Ignorance is the excuse they will use forever. The fact that Hitler kept the suffering of his country a secret was part of his master plan. Even Benito Mussolini who was the leader of Italy, and working very closely with Germany did not understand the extent Hitler took the Holocaust. The Allies were too busy fighting the war to remember that minorities in Germany were suffering the consequence of being different. The mass murders of approximately six million Jews were overlooked for six years.

The United States were so unaware about the situation in Germany that even American corporations were working with the Axis Powers. An American company named International Business Machines or IBM was founded in 1911. When Hitler decided to start persecuting Jews, he needed an immediate way to organize them. “A massive and complex task that Hitler wanted done — could they be targeted for efficient asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, enslaved labor, and, ultimately, annihilation” (Black, 117). Since computers did not exist at the time, Hitler used IBM’s Hollerith punch card technology. There is no way to be certain that if corporations were fully aware of the situation in Germany, that they would still provide their services to the Axis Powers. However, if corporations knew that the mass murders of millions of people depended on their punch cards, it would have been less likely for them to do business with Germany. Nevertheless, it is true that if IBM did not supply the Nazis with their Hollerith punch card technology, they would have potentially saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The technology basically made it faster to record and organized Jews. If the Nazis were to record and organize Jews manually, the process of exterminating the Jews would have taken longer, implicating more lives would have been saved. Hitler discovered it was becoming very simple to manipulate the world as well as his own country.

Easily influenced children were something Hitler was determined to take advantage of. The idea of using children in politics was an intelligent scheme. His motive behind using children was both for cultural and political reasons. Culturally, using children was more effective because they would already have racism instilled into their brains and they would have the ability to teach their own children for generations to come. Children are far more likely to follow directions and are effortlessly brainwashed. Hitler had been quoted saying, “You’re child belongs to us already, in a short time they will know nothing else but this short community” (Duke). By choosing children of a very young age, one could see the easy manipulation tactics the Nazis had used. Children are influenced easily and will do what they’re told. Hitler always emphasized the child belonged to the country and no longer belonged to the parent. He wanted the new generation to follow his ideals of the perfect world.

The most useful strategy Hitler used was the Adolf Hitler schools. The schools provided Aryan children to learn without any outside distractions. After Aryan high school children graduated, they would go to a college called Ordensburgen. “The main objectives of these colleges were to focus on physical education as well as political education” (Mazower, 113). The physical education was significant because they would soon join the army. The political education was in order for the children to learn about their enemies. Gaining knowledge on their enemies allowed for Aryans to gradually despise Allies and Jews. Not only did Hitler separate Aryans into different schools, the curriculum also changed. “Schools were teaching subjects like German history but spent more time embedding ideas of nationalism and militarism” (Vincent, 345). Schools also put more emphasis on gender roles and race science. The reason for this was to implant racist ideas into a child’s head, forcing them to have hatred towards other races. The Aryan race became the elite and was required to destroy any other race. Hitler informed Aryans that they were the privileged race, allowing them to depend on him in their time of need.

The only way Hitler could posses control was if he gained trust from the Germans. Germany was in the middle of a depression. That was the perfect opportunity for Hitler to take advantage of the nation. “Nazis claimed they saved Germany from the depression, especially reducing unemployment rates” (Wright). When Nazis told the nation that they liberated the country from experiencing more pain from the depression and embarrassment, Germany was easier to manipulate. Since Germany lost World War One, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles and pay ridiculous amounts of money for damages. The country was very deprived because of debts and also a world depression. He used the depression and suffering of the Germans as a way for them to have confidence in his racist ideas. Once they had faith that Hitler was able to have the country obey him without question. He needed an outlet to express his xenophobic views.

The most effective way to control your nation is controlling mass media. The two most important forms of propaganda were the radio and the press. Both were successfully controlled by the Nazis. “When the Nazis first came into power, one of their first duties was to replace all radio and press employees with ones that believed in Nazi ideology” (Duke). The important decision was made in order for Germany to understand the message. Hitler’s obvious message was conformity. He believed that the Aryans were the pure race, and they should think very similarly. The problems with conformity were the Jews. Since Hitler detested them, he needed an immediate way to exterminate them. Hitler used many strategies to hold them responsible for Germany’s financial situation. With replacing many of the media staff workers Hitler showed the significance of the Nazi ideology and consequence of not following it. “One of the strongest points of the Nazi ideology was that they were utterly opposed to social and economic equality towards women.” (Darity) Media workers and feminists who had different opinions on how the country should be run did not have a voice anymore. With the media now being very one-sided it created turmoil between Jews and Aryans. The success of the Nazis controlling media was a significant component to the suffering the Jews encountered during the Holocaust.

Increasing propaganda posters and radio advertisements changed German perspective on Jews. Once seen as contributing members of society, turned into enemies of Germany. Hitler forced Germans to view his anti-Semitic philosophy. He used Jews as a scapegoat as the reason to why Germany was in distress. By using propaganda he vilified Jews and made Germany believe Jews were to blame for all the stressful issues they was faced with. “Although anti-Semitic views existed in the past, Hitler used nationalism as inspiration to betray Jews” (Cook). Not only did the Nazis use propaganda, they used pieces of art, literature, music, and cinema. When dictating which art pieces could be displayed to the public, he understood that the citizens paid attention to any form of media and would be influenced by discriminatory art. Besides controlling media, the Nazis were controlling culture as well. They banned over 20,000 books during the ‘burning of the books’ to promote German values. “All ‘degenerate’ art was destroyed. Books that were destroyed included liberal, left-wing, pacifist or Jewish elements” (Todd, 210). Aryans were becoming very accustomed to being the privileged few.

Hitler’s reign proved to be very successful while he was in power because his many accomplishments. The techniques Hitler used which included manipulation of world leaders and controlling youth and media were evidence that he was a substantial leader. By looking at how he gained power and maintained it for many years, one would see he clearly instilled fear in his country. Although his scheme may have been unethical, Hitler changed the perspective on a whole race. He gained the trust of the whole nation and they were willing to sacrifice their innocent children and betray neighbours. He skillfully persuaded his country to follow him blindly into war. Although Germany lost World War Two, and millions of deaths were documented from all of the countries involved in the war, Hitler will be recorded in history not only for his immoral actions but also for his ability to gain and maintain power while his people followed adoringly.