Commander Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler is one of the world's most infamous dictators. His childhood strongly shaped his personality, along with many factors that determined the kind of person he became.
Hitler had a difficult childhood. His father was an illegitimate child, and it is thought that Adolf's grandfather was Jewish. This possible Jewish blood made Hitler's father angry, and he took his anger out on his children, especially Adolf. As he grew older, I think Hitler thought that the death of every single Jew could hide the fearful, brutal, and embarrassing memory of his father. I think Hitler felt that it was up to him to rid himself and Germany of Jewish blood. Another event that happened in his life was that his mother died when he was a teenager, and that probably gave him a feeling of grief, loss, and maybe even anger in his life.
Adolf had two dreams as a young boy. He had first wanted to become a Catholic priest, but when he discovered art, he found his new dream. Hitler was not a good student, and he disliked all of his teachers but one. His history teacher was a strong German nationalist and a follower of the Pan German movement. This meant that he believed in the superiority of the light skinned European race and scorned races who, in the Pan German's eyes, were inferior, mainly Jews. This teacher could also have had an effect on Hitler.
After dropping out of school at age 16, Hitler pursued his dream of becoming an artist. He went to Vienna and applied to a prestigious art school. When he got turned down, he stayed in Vienna for about 5 years, living in poverty. I think that Hitler's stay in Vienna had a huge effect, because it was there that he learned about things like anti-Semitism. The city had many different ethnic groups, and racism was common. There were many Jewish immigrants, and it had the largest Jewish population of any city in Europe. The Jews were hated because they had their own custom, dress, and religion, which made them stand out to others in Germany. Newstands in Vienna had many anti-Semitism pamphlets, and Adolf probably developed his hatred for Jews here. The pamphlets also could have given him an outlet for his anger and disappointment.
Hitler at first tried to dodge the...