Adolf Hitler
1889–1945 · Austrian/German (Braunau am Inn / Munich / Berlin) · Nazi Germany, World War II
Known for: Fascist dictator who launched WWII and the Holocaust—responsible for the deaths of ~70 million people
Hitler rose from failed art student and WWI corporal to absolute dictator of Germany. He founded the Third Reich, rebuilt the German military in violation of Versailles, conquered most of Europe, and orchestrated the Holocaust—the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of Roma, disabled people, homosexuals, and political opponents.
He was a mesmerizing orator who exploited German resentment, economic despair, and antisemitism. He launched World War II (the deadliest conflict in history—70 million dead) and shot himself in his Berlin bunker as Soviet forces closed in, on April 30, 1945.
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