The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men on 17 March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin.[16] By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a commemorative ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The oaths pledged were “Pledging loyalty to him alone” and “Obedience unto death”

Under Hitler’s leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of about 6 million Jews and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history.

Hitler’s actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral. According to Ian Kershaw, “Never in history has such ruination – physical and moral – been associated with the name of one man.

“Hitler”,[8] also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler. The name is probably based on “one who lives in a hut” (German Hütte for “hut”)

He was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler’s siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy.

The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest.[25] In 1898 the family returned permanently to Leonding. Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund, who died in 1900 from measles. Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and

Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau, and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.[27] Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed.

He was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, and was wounded at the Somme.[69] He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914.[69] On a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, Hitler’s Jewish superior, he received the Iron Cross, First Class on 4 August 1918, a decoration rarely awarded to one of Hitler’s Gefreiter rank

Hitler described the war as “the greatest of all experiences”, and was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery

While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle; originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) at first to his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, and then to his deputy, Rudolf Hess.[124][125] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. The book laid out Hitler’s plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Throughout the book, Jews are equated with “germs” and presented as the “international poisoners” of society. According to Hitler’s ideology, the only solution was their extermination. While Hitler did not describe exactly how this was to be accomplished, his “inherent genocidal thrust is undeniable,” according to Ian Kershaw.[126]

Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, Mein Kampf sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler’s first year in office

 

Maurice became Hitler’s permanent chauffeur in 1925.[4] Later when Maurice informed Hitler in December 1927 that he was having a relationship with Hitler’s half-niece Geli Raubal, Hitler forced an end to the affair. Maurice was dismissed from Hitler’s personal service in 1928, but allowed to remain a member of the SS.[16][17][4]

When the SS was reorganized and expanded in 1932, Maurice became a senior SS officer and would eventually be promoted to the rank SS-Oberführer. While Maurice never became a top commander of the SS, his status as SS member #2 effectively credited him as an actual founder of the organization. Heinrich Himmler, who ultimately would become the most recognized leader of the SS, was SS member #168.

After Himmler had become Reichsführer-SS, Maurice fell afoul of Himmler’s racial purity rules for SS officers when he had to submit details of his family history before he was allowed to marry in 1935. Himmler stated, “without question…Maurice is, according to his ancestral table, not of Aryan descent”.[19] All SS officers had to prove racial purity back to 1750, and it turned out that Maurice had Jewish ancestry: Charles Maurice Schwartzenberger (1805–1896), the founder of the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, was his great-grandfather.

Even though Maurice had been a party member since 1919, taken part in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch, for which he was awarded the prestigious Blood Order, and been a bodyguard for Hitler, Himmler considered him to be a serious security risk given his “Jewish ancestry”.[3][20] Himmler recommended that Maurice be expelled from the SS, along with other members of his family. To Himmler’s annoyance, Hitler stood by his old friend.[19] In a secret letter written on 31 August 1935, Hitler compelled Himmler to make an exception for Maurice and his brothers, who were informally declared “Honorary Aryans” and allowed to stay in the SS

Relationship With Half Niece

Raubal was living in Hitler’s Munich apartment, and he maintained strict control over her actions. She was, in effect, a prisoner, but she planned to escape to Vienna to continue her singing lessons.[3] Her mother told interrogators after the war that her daughter was hoping to marry a man from Linz, but that Hitler had forbidden the relationship. He and Raubal argued on 18 September 1931 when he refused to allow her to go to Vienna. He departed for a meeting in Nuremberg, but was recalled to Munich the next day with the news that Raubal was dead from a gunshot wound to the lung;[1] she had apparently shot herself in Hitler’s Munich apartment with Hitler’s Walther pistol.[6] She was 23.

Rumours immediately began in the media about physical abuse, a possible sexual relationship, an infatuation by Raubal for Hitler, and even murder.[1][7][8] The Münchener Post reported that the dead girl had a fractured nose.[9] Otto Strasser, a political opponent of Hitler, was the source of some of the more sensational stories. The historian Ian Kershaw maintains that “whether actively sexual or not, Hitler’s behaviour towards Geli has all the traits of a strong, latent at least, sexual dependence.”[5] The police ruled out foul play; the death was ruled a suicide.[10] Hitler was devastated and went into an intense depression. He moved to a house on the shores of Tegernsee lake, and did not attend the funeral in Vienna on 24 September. He visited her grave at Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) two days later. Thereafter, he overcame his depression and refocused on politics.[7]

Hitler later declared that Raubal was the only woman he had ever loved. Her room at the Berghof was kept as she had left it, and he hung portraits of her in his own room there and at the Chancellery in Berlin.[11]

In a 1992 Vanity Fair article, Ron Rosenbaum examines several theories, including speculation that Hitler intentionally or accidentally shot and killed Raubal during an argument, or that she was killed on his orders.[9] According to William Stuart-Houston, a son of Adolf’s brother Alois, “When I visited Berlin in 1931, the family was in trouble. … Everyone knew that Hitler and she had long been intimate and that she had been expecting a child – a fact that enraged Hitler.”[

Kubizek wrote, “Even though I, a fundamentally unpolitical individual, had always kept aloof from the political events of the period which ended forever in 1945, nevertheless no power on earth could compel me to deny my friendship with Adolf Hitler.”

August Kubizek Hitler’s Childhood Friend