So was Adolf Hitler

British historian Alan Bullock, one of the most reputable biographers of Adolf Hitler, he was convinced that the ailing dictator's mind was solely focused on the claim of absolute power. Indeed, the Führer appears to embody the very essence of brutality. And yet his choice at the polls was hailed by hundreds of thousands of people and much of Germany devoutly followed the war. What explains this phenomenon? Ian Kershaw, Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield in England, author of an essay on this monumental figure, that is essential to further understand their experience during the First World War.


A hate-filled monster incapable of experiencing empathy


"Those years have a major influence on their psychology. In the front is dehumanizing, and since then did something else to look guilty, was obsessed with flip history, "Kershaw says in an interview in El País. Other researchers, however, as the writer of Polish origin and psychologist Alice Miller, believe it is necessary to go further and penetrate into his childhood to discover the roots of evil.


Hitler was born in Braunau, a small village near the Austrian border with Germany. His father, Alois Hitler, was a modest and severe customs agent. In his study How could a monster succeed in blinding a nation, "Miller says how the Führer his secretary told him that on one occasion was able to count 32 strokes Alois him without a tear shed. "Hitler developed a primitive character, incapable of experiencing empathy, thirsty hate," he says. Perhaps why Adolf, who was the second of six brothers, though only he and his sister Paula survived childhood, was particularly attached to his mother, Klara, whose death in 1907 affected him deeply. His father, who died four years earlier, wished his son would be official, a prospect that does not please the young Hitler, who leaned more to the painting and architecture. Not achieved: suspended on two occasions the entrance examination to the University of Linz, where he became interested in anti-Semitic ideas of Professor Leopold Poetsch, and was rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna "for lack of talent."


Hitler, who malvivía in the Austrian capital from the sale of his paintings, he moved to Munich in 1913, partly attracted by the power of Germany and partly to evade military service. A year later, however, did not hesitate to enlist as a volunteer in the army of that country. During the Great War was to France and Belgium as a messenger, reached the rank of corporal and received two Iron Crosses. At the end of the conflict, Hitler was temporarily blinded by a poison gas attack and was taken to a field hospital. There he was diagnosed as "dangerously psychotic", a hobby that grew when Germany capitulated in November 1918. Later, the stringent conditions set by the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the social and political conditions that give power. In September 1919, he joined a small far-right party, the German Workers Party, the future Nazi Party.

Above all, despised the Jews and democracies


Two years later, had earned a reputation with his speech, which attacked the rival groups and Jews. His political career took a more drastic course in 1923 and attempted to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich, an action that earned him a sentence of five years' imprisonment, of which only served eight months. Took advantage of his stay in prison to give to my struggle, a manifest that is evident in its disregard for democracy and the Jews.


Already released, Hitler used the economic crisis to attract the votes promised to create jobs and restore Germany to its strength. Although he was defeated in elections in 1932, promoted a wave of riots that led the government to collapse. Thus, the January 30, 1933, was elected chancellor. Year and a half later was appointed Führer-Guide, and was prepared to eliminate all opposition. The party took control of the bureaucracy, began the process of eliminating "enemies of Germany, took control of the economy and created the Gestapo, a police force that fought the" dangerous trends for the state. "


The Führer had thoroughly prepared the country for war. Ian Kershaw notes that Hitler used the sense of national shame originated after the Great War to try to destroy the "inferior people", an initiative by fustrada resistance and the British and Soviet entry into the conflict in the USA.


Although he never had in mind to capitulate, his health, however, was delicate suffered headaches, heart attacks and possibly jaundice. And by then, the dictator was a ruined man. In 1931, following the suicide of his niece Geli Raubal, which was deeply in love, stopped eating meat. Their diet, by contrast, included large quantities of pure amphetamine caused irritability and hallucinations. A document from 1943, Henry Murray, a member of the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA, made a report on his personality that ultimately premonitory. It noted that in case of defeat could dramatically suicide. So it was. At dawn on April 29, 1945, issued his will and married Eva Braun. A day later, two suicide. Their bodies were taken to the chancellery garden, doused with gasoline and incinerated.