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Hitler began his rise in 1921 when the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi)
party elected him as the leader of the party (Lyons, 2010).
The Nazi party attempted a revolt in 1923. The Beer Hall Putsch failed miserably
leading to Hitler and other party leaders arrest. This was only a minor setback as
Hitler became a national figure during his trial and only served nine months of his
five year sentence. During his prison sentence, Hitler came to realize that the Nazi
party needed to come to power legally instead of trying to overthrow the
government again. Obtaining power legally was a slow process (Lyons, 2010).
In the 1928 elections, the Nazi party only earned twelve seats (Lyons, 2010).
In the 1930 election, the Nazi party had claimed 107 seats making them the second
largest Reichstag delegation (Lyons, 2010).
When elections took place again in July 1932, the Nazi party captured over 37
percent of the vote and increased their delegation to 230. In the next election that
following November the Nazi party received a setback to only 196 delegates (Lyons,
2010).
On January 30, 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor putting him into government

leadership. The other government leaders believed that this appointment would
help prevent Hitlers rise to power. Hitler then held another election in March 1933
but was disappointed at only capturing 288 seats which was still short of the majority
(Lyons, 2010).
By 1934, Hitler had almost completed his revolution using intimidation tactics toward
the other parties and having his political rivals arrested and charged as political
prisoners. Hitlers last oppositions were the SA and the army. Hitler assigned
Himmler and the SS to gather up the leaders of the SA and execute them without
trial. Shortly after Hitler announced that the office of the chancellor and the
president were now combined into his new position as Fuhrer giving him power over
party and state (Lyons, 2010).

Hitlers plan for the Third Reich included German expansion eastward and the
creation of a pure Aryan race. He intended the Third Reich to use military forces to
enlarge the superior German race into Eastern Europe and Soviet Union (United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum [USHMM], 2016).
The Third Reich also started a strict population policy encouraging racially pure
women to bare as many racial pure children as possible. Along with increasing
the Aryan race Hitler wanted inferior races such as Jews and Gypsies eliminated
for the enlarged German region. The plan included the destruction of Soviet Union
and the extermination of inferior races. The Gestapo played an important part in
the plans of the Third Reich as enforcement (USHMM, 2016).

Hitler wanted all German-speaking nations in Europe to be a part of Germany, in

particular, his native homeland, Austria. Treaty of Versailles, however, strictly
forbade Germany and Austria to be unified. In addition, he wanted control of the
largely German-speaking area within Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, which
shared a border with Austria. To make this union, known as Anschluss, successful,
Hitler needed to destabilize Austria and undermine its independence (BBC, 2014).
On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unopposed. Hitler now
had control of Austria and one month later, he held a rigged referendum that
showed Austrians approved of German control of their country (BBC, 2014).

Prior to the invasion of Poland, there are a few things that happened that lead towards
this conflict.
To neutralize the possibility that the USSR would come to Polands aid. In doing so,
located in a secret clause of the agreement both parties had agreed to divide Poland
between them (History.com Staff, 2010).
This order would eventually be delayed once Hitler learned that Britain had signed a
new treaty with Poland, promising military support should it be attacked
(History.com Staff, 2010).
He gave this order because he had a plan already in place to happen later that
evening. On August 31, at approximately 8 p.m., Nazi S.S. troops staged an
invasion of Germany wearing Polish uniforms and damaging several minor
installations inside the German border. In their wake, they left a handful of dead
concentration camp prisoners wearing Polish uniforms which Nazis claimed was
evidence of the Polish invasion they declared an unforgivable act of aggression
(History.com Staff, 2010).
At approximately 4:45 am nearly 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland along
the border of German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, German warships and U-

boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea while the German Luftwaffe
bombed Polish airfields. Adolf Hitler claimed the invasion was a defensive action.
Britain and France, not believing the story of self-defense, declared war on Germany
on September 3 (History.com Staff, 2010).

Lebensraum (living space) or the territory that a state or nation believes is needed for its
natural development and as Hitler had promised in Mein Kampf (History.com Staff, 2010).
As this pact stated, Germany would split Poland with Russia and the two nations would
share a non-aggressive pact with one another (History.com Staff, 2010).
Poland was preparing to resist Hitler, and had started mobilizing its army. Hitler stated that
this broke Poland's non-aggression pact with Germany. Plus, by taking out Poland, it would
prevent the Allies from ganging up on Germany (History.com Staff, 2010).
Poland was one step closer to Russia and would be essential once the invasion of Russia
would begin (History.com Staff, 2010).
Simply one word, Blitzkrieg. Germany first tested the Blitzkrieg during the invasion of
Poland in September 1939. After this test the Germans would continue to use this tactic
throughout WWII (History.com Staff, 2010).

Hitler founded his theory after the defeat in World War 1 and after he was arrested in
Germany. While detained, Hitler wrote of a glorious and pure Germany. His theory of
Untermenschen, meaning subhuman creature, was his attempt to keep the German race
pure by any means necessary. The theory classified the Jews as the lowest race in human
kind and declared that they were to be exterminated. The next lowest race were the Slavs
who were to be worked to death for the Third Reich (The Ukrainian Canadian Research

and Documentation Centre [UCRDC], 2003).

After the Jews and Slavs, there were other ethnicities that Hitler deemed subhuman.
However, certain groups of Slavs, Poles and Ukrainians that once lived under the AustriaHungary Empire, were considered superior than those who do not. This was essentially a
twisted version of Social Darwinism, making it a moral right for the superior Aryan people
to conquer and destroy any subhuman or untermenschen. This theory was supposedly to
insure the continued development of the human race (UCRDC, 2003).

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