阿道夫·希特勒

阿道夫·希特勒 (Adolf Hitler) 1889年出生於奧匈帝國因河畔布勞瑙 (Braunau am Inn)，父親阿洛伊斯·希特勒 (Alois Hitler) 是一名海關官員，父親克拉拉·珀爾茲爾 (Klara Pölzl)。一家人在上奧地利州多次搬家。他的父親於1903年去世，母親於1907年去世。希特勒讀過中學，但沒有畢業。他曾兩次嘗試在維也納申請成為一名藝術家，但都遭到拒絕。

1908年至1913年，希特勒在維也納生活貧困，遭遇反猶太主義和民族主義政治。這些年對他後來的世界觀的確切影響存在爭議。後來的自傳說法並不總是可靠的。 1913年，他移居慕尼黑，從1914年起，第一次世界大戰期間在德國軍隊服役，期間負傷並獲得勳章。

Biographies describe Alois as an authoritarian father who physically abused his children and clashed with Adolf over schooling and career choices. Violence at home, family bereavements and especially his mother's death were distressing childhood experiences. The evidence partly consists of later recollections and requires critical comparison; a retrospective psychiatric diagnosis is not justified. Abuse also provides neither a sufficient explanation nor an excuse for Hitler's later antisemitism, political decisions and responsibility for mass murder.

1918年德國戰敗後，希特勒繼續留在軍隊，並被指派觀察政治團體。 1919年，他加入德國工人黨（後來成為德國國家社會主義工人黨），並作為演說家而受到關注。 1923年啤酒館政變失敗後，他被定罪入獄。在《我的奮鬥》中，他提出了反猶太主義、種族主義和擴張主義思想。他獲釋後，該黨在恐嚇和宣傳的同時尋求參與選舉。

經濟危機、政治不穩定和保守派精英的支援幫助納粹黨成長。 1933年1月，希特勒就任總理，利用緊急權力和立法鎮壓反對派，建立獨裁政權。該政權解散工會、限制公民權利、迫害猶太人和其他團體，並重新武裝德國。 1938年，它吞併了奧地利並佔領了蘇臺德地區； 1939年9月，德國入侵波蘭。

希特勒在戰爭期間做出了有關軍事戰略和迫害的核心決策。 1941年入侵蘇聯與殖民征服戰爭和大規模屠殺有關。他的政權組織了大屠殺，殺害了六百萬猶太人，還迫害和殺害了羅姆人、殘疾人、波蘭和蘇聯平民、政治對手、同性戀者和其他群體。 1945年4月，希特勒在柏林自殺身亡。

On 23 August 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed by their foreign ministers. The public non-aggression treaty was accompanied by a secret protocol on spheres of influence in eastern Europe. It facilitated the German and Soviet invasions of Poland in September 1939 and subsequent occupation and repression. Germany broke the pact by invading the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. It was a diplomatic agreement between ideological enemies, not a rejection of territorial expansion.

The Reich government enacted the Animal Protection Law on 24 November 1933, prohibiting cruelty to animals and restricting animal experiments, subject to exceptions and implementing rules. Nazi-era anti-tobacco campaigns included smoking restrictions in certain government buildings, transport and institutions; there was no universal national smoking ban. Historian Robert Proctor places tobacco policy in the context of racial and bodily 'purity', propaganda and medical research. These measures do not alter the regime's responsibility for persecution and genocide.

希特勒的政治崛起發生在德國第一次世界大戰戰敗和魏瑪共和國建立之後。和平解決、通貨膨脹、街頭政治暴力和大蕭條削弱了人們對議會政黨的信心。在整個歐洲，威權主義和法西斯運動通過民族主義、反共主義和群眾宣傳的結合而獲得支援。

種族主義偽科學和反猶太主義早於納粹主義，但納粹將它們制定為國家政策並將其與領土擴張聯絡起來。廣播、電影和群眾集會被用來組織支援和壓制批評。第二次世界大戰帶來了空前規模的佔領、強迫勞動、驅逐和破壞；地方機構和合作者在被佔領土發揮著不同的作用。

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games of 1–16 August 1936: in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump and with the US 4 × 100 metres relay team. Newspaper reports from 1936 describe the Olympic Stadium crowd cheering him loudly and acknowledging his athletic performances with ovations. The German regime used the Games for international propaganda; the Nuremberg racial laws remained in force while, among other measures, anti-Jewish signs were temporarily removed from public view.

On returning to the United States, Owens received public celebrations, including a parade in New York. At the same time, as a Black American he continued to encounter racial separation and segregation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not invite him to a White House reception or personally congratulate him on his Olympic achievements. According to the biographical sources consulted, Owens also received no official congratulatory telegram from the president. The National Archives documents that the other Black American medal winners of 1936 likewise received no White House invitation.

For a celebration at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Owens had to use the freight elevator to reach the gathering because of the racial access restrictions of the period. The International Olympic Committee describes this specific incident in its account of Owens' life after the Games. This treatment at home occurred alongside public celebrations and the ovations he had previously received in Berlin. In 1976 Owens received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House from President Gerald Ford.

1939年，納粹政權入侵波蘭，在歐洲引發了第二次世界大戰。這場戰爭導致數千萬人因戰鬥、佔領、轟炸、飢餓和疾病而喪生。大屠殺是對歐洲猶太人的系統性種族滅絕；該政權還殺害了數百萬其他受害者，或通過強迫勞動、驅逐出境、醫療謀殺計劃和大規模處決來迫害他們。

在德國境內，該政權摧毀了政治反對派和獨立工會，而警察、宮廷和特勤部門則實施迫害。猶太公民的權利逐漸被剝奪、被剝奪、被驅逐和被謀殺。羅姆人、殘疾人、政治反對派和其他目標群體也受到影響。後果包括社群遭到破壞、流離失所和持久的創傷，以及歐洲邊界和國際機構的持久變化。

Victim numbers are reconstructed from German records, testimony and demographic evidence. Approximately six million murdered Jews is the broadly established historical estimate for the Holocaust, not an exact individual register or an arbitrarily disputed figure. For other victim groups and total war deaths, definitions, source coverage and estimates differ. Such uncertainties should be identified for each group without relativising the documented genocide or silently adding together different categories.

1945年4月30日，當蘇聯軍隊佔領柏林時，希特勒在柏林元首地堡自殺身亡。愛娃·布勞恩在嫁給他不久後也自殺身亡。據目擊者稱，他們的屍體在掩體外被焚燒；不久之後，柏林被佔領，德國投降。儘管後來有陰謀論，但根據檔案和證詞重建了當時的情況。

1945年後，納粹領導人在紐倫堡受到審判，大屠殺通過證詞、檔案和物證被廣泛記錄。歷史學家分析了希特勒的個人權力以及政黨、國家、軍隊、商業和佔領當局的合作。他的名字在國際上與種族滅絕和獨裁統治聯絡在一起，但學術界也強調需要解釋執行他的政策的機構和社會參與。

After liberation, parts of some former camp sites were reused for detention. According to the Majdanek museum, the NKVD held Polish resistance members in two barracks of field III in August 1944; on 23 August the remaining prisoners were deported to the Soviet Union. According to the Auschwitz museum, Soviet authorities established transit camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau by April–May 1945 for German POWs and, among others, Polish civilians, with Polish security services involved. These were separate post-war detention practices, not a reopening of the Nazi extermination programme. Dates, camp sections, authorities and prisoner groups must therefore be distinguished precisely.