Hitler - Anecdotes, Myths and Lies

From 1933, when the Nazi leader announced, "Today we rule the nation, tomorrow the world," to the devastated Europe of 1945, where 13 million orphans roamed the ruined streets, 12 years had passed in which the greatest human tragedy the world has known occurred. There is no doubt Hitler was an all-powerful leader. His war caused the deaths of more than 40 million people.

Every 18th of September, from 1931, Hitler placed flowers on the grave of his niece Geli. She was the great love of his life. Although the relationship had ended in rows over her wish to move to Vienna to study singing, the Nazi leader never forgot her. The cause of her tragic death was never completely cleared up, though the police said it was suicide.

On the 1st of September 1939 a number of unanswered questions still faced Hitler and the German High Command. How would Britain and France react? What decision would American President Franklin Roosevelt take? Waiting for the answers to these and other questions, Hitler addressed a meeting of parliament at the Kroll Opera House.

Operation Sealion, the planned amphibious invasion of Britain that was never carried out, was one of the Third Reich's greatest strategic errors. The German High Command was unenthusiastic from the start and there were a number of failures on the part of the intelligence services. The British, on the other hand, enjoyed the advantage of having cracked the German codes using the Enigma system.

Contrary to what many people believe, Hitler was a very poor strategist. His experience on the battlefield was limited to the months he fought in the Great War where he rose to the rank of corporal. Desperate for military glory but deeply unsure of himself, he tried to hide his own shortcomings and scorned the advice of professional soldiers, who criticised his way of directing the war.

The enormous tragedy of the Second World War did not prevent a certain admiration for the enemy developing on both sides. On the German side the figure Rommel stands out in this respect. The British called him the Desert Fox as a mark of their respect for his merit as a military leader.