Adolf Hitler
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was one of the most
powerful and infamous dictators of the 20th century. After World War I,
he rose to power in the National Socialist German Workers Party, taking
control of the German government in 1933. His establishment of
concentration camps to inter Jews and other groups he believed to be a
threat to Aryan supremacy resulted in the death of more than 6 million
people in the Holocaust. His attack on Poland in 1939 started World War
II, and by 1941 Germany occupied much of Europe and North Africa. The
tide of the war turned following an invasion of Russian and the U.S.
entry into battle, and Hitler killed himself shortly before Germany’s
defeat.