122
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Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
For once that was an ideal. And a goal. To be 'restored'. By racial breeding and struggle. And it was readily apparent to really everyone that not every German was blonde.
That said, Hitler himself ...
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89
votes
Accepted
Were Hitler's anti-Jewish sentiments known at all to those who voted him to power in 1933?
I think your question is best answered by addressing an underlying presumption. Namely: your 21st century eyes and your living in a society that considers hate speech to be antisocial are misleading ...
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75
votes
Accepted
Was Hitler exclaiming "Heil Hitler!" himself when saluting?
Short Answer
Despite the claims of some sites, I can find no evidence that Hitler himself said 'Heil Hitler', and it would make no sense for him to do so as the words were more than a greeting: they ...
- 108k
52
votes
Accepted
Could a German insult Hitler without being arrested?
Well, not officially.
Insulting the Führer or insulting Hitler, any laws for that?
'Insulting the Führer' was often interpreted as being a Lèse-majesté, codified from the beginning of the 2nd Reich in ...
- 80.6k
40
votes
Accepted
What pretext did Hitler use to justify Operation Barbarossa?
Radio broadcast to the German people
Hitler gave his reasons to the German people via a radio broadcast on the morning of June 22nd, 1941.
At 0500 GMT, an hour after the invasion began, the Nazi ...
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40
votes
Accepted
Did the Nazis identify as being Fascists? How exactly did they view themselves?
There is a confusion of terminology at work, here. First of all, you have to understand what the terms involved were not: They weren't the "loaded" terms we recognize them as from today's point of ...
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39
votes
Accepted
Why did other German political parties disband so fast when Hitler was appointed chancellor?
Three steps to observe:
Hitler was given the chancellory
Election in 1933
Reichstag fire & Enabling decree
First the really unwanted elements were beaten up, imprisoned or just killed. Then a ...
- 80.6k
38
votes
Accepted
What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?
For almost the entire war, Hermann Göring was Hitler's designated successor. He had been the second most powerful man in the Reich since the Nazi takeover, and had done much of the practical work of ...
- 31k
37
votes
Accepted
Is it true that Hitler led to the invention of the atomic bomb by the Americans?
The discovery of uranium fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (German chemists) in the Jan 1939 issue of Die Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature) sparked great interest among physicists ...
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34
votes
Accepted
Are currently sold versions of "Mein Kampf" censored?
Mein Kampf was illegal in a lot of countries for a very long time.
As already noted in a comment, it was never illegal in Germany. You could sell and buy any existing copies. Reprinting it was not ...
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26
votes
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Did Hitler ever tell a joke?
According to Rochus Misch, the Berlin Bunker telephonist and part of the Führerbegleitkommando (Führer Escort Command; FBK), Hitler did tell jokes but
I cannot state for a fact that Hitler had a ...
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26
votes
Where can I find all Hitler speeches in original German?
A reliable and complete one-stop historical-critical collection of all speeches is still to be made.
You can consult lots of collections, also online. But only for parts of different timeframes are ...
- 80.6k
25
votes
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Who are the people walking with Hitler?
Regarding place and date: The picture was taken in Blaubeuren, Germany. In the background, a part of the Blaubeuren Abbey is visible (its western portal):
Source: Wikipedia Commons, Schilling Thomas (...
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25
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How did Hitler imagine his succession? (for the case nazis would win the war)
The official, factual side
As unsatisfactory as that might sound @JMS is rightly focussing on first Göring and then Dönitz/Goebbels, although the later declined to survive so that Schwerin von ...
- 80.6k
24
votes
Accepted
Why did Paul von Hindenburg wrongly call Adolf Hitler "Bohemian corporal"?
Paul von Hindenburg called Hitler a "böhmischer Gefreiter".
He (and others) wrongly assumed that Hitler was born in Broumov (called Braunau in German) that is indeed in Bohemia (today Czech Republic)...
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23
votes
Did Nazi leaders consider continuing guerrilla warfare after the collapse of Germany?
The timeframe is exactly right for the highest level of organisational planning in this general direction:
In late summer/early autumn 1944, Heinrich Himmler initiated Unternehmen Werwolf (Operation ...
- 80.6k
20
votes
What did Hitler mean with the following statement about Franco?
I am not sure what Hitler did know about the political details of Spain and I certainly cannot be sure of what he was thinking, so I will just laid out some data and thoughts:
While Franco's side is ...
- 12.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Could Hitler have won WW2 after losing the beaches of Normandy
Hitler probably couldn't have won WW2 after the end of 1942, if ever. The writing was on the wall in one sense during Barbarossa, when the Germans thought they had the Soviets on the ropes. The ...
- 3,195
17
votes
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From 1936-45 what was the prescribed punishment in Nazi Germany for failing to join or participate in the Hitler Youth?
There was no upper limit to sanctions.
From to 1936 to 1939, membership in the HJ was "voluntary". So actual punishment was not put into law until the Second Executive Order on the law about ...
- 13.4k
17
votes
Did the Nazis identify as being Fascists? How exactly did they view themselves?
How did they view themselves? Let's ask them.
Take the diaries of Joseph Goebbels. He writes in the extant works about national-socialism and fascism, mostly as a differentiation.
But differentiating ...
- 80.6k
16
votes
Accepted
What, if anything, did Hitler think of the Canadian government's treatment of the Native Americans?
That source is pretty dubious, given that it's a wiki about TV tropes, and that the page no longer contains the content you quote, for starters. For finishers, Germans speak German, rather than [...
- 1,485
16
votes
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Why did Hitler not claim the German-majority areas of Schleswig?
As historian Mark Mazower put it: The Nazis always fabulated about thousand years and were often incapable of thinking 5 minutes ahead. That means that there were many plans, often grandiose in nature,...
- 80.6k
16
votes
Why did Hitler treat the Slavs inconsistently?
Hitler's racial policy was based not on anything to do with biology, but rather on who he wanted to be friends with in foreign policy. Semaphore♦ 9 hours ago
...he didn't actually have policies. He ...
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15
votes
Accepted
Was there a reason Hitler saluted differently to everyone else?
My take is that it's a casual, and perhaps older version of the Nazi salute. Hitler talks about the origin of the salute, which he refers to as the "German Salute", which is recorded in Hitler's Table ...
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14
votes
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Did Hitler brag about or downplay his war experiences in WW I in appealing to 1932 voters?
To be frank, it seems the author has no clue.
[...], he didn't have friends or relatives in high places, [...]
He was in the Beer Hall Putsch which was promoted by Erich Ludendorff, the former ...
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13
votes
What was Hitler like in private?
Q What was Hitler like in private?
We cannot know!
The vast majority of material available that otherwise might shine some light on this is highly unreliable.
Q That being said, we also know that ...
- 80.6k
13
votes
Were Hitler's anti-Jewish sentiments known at all to those who voted him to power in 1933?
Antisemitism was a major election platform for Hitler along with nationalism. Jews were traditionally (even preceding the Middle Ages) restricted in their professions, barred from crafts and locked ...
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