Adolf Hitler was born April 20th, 1889 in a small Austrian town of Braunau on the Inn River along the Bauarian, Germany border. Hitler was dictator or leader of the German Nazi movement. After an initially fine performance in elementary school, Adolf soon became rebellious and began failing in the RealSchule (college preparatory school).

In 1907, after his mother died, he moved to Vienna in an attempt to enroll in the famed Academy of Fine Arts. His failure to gain admission that year and the next led him into a period of deep depression and seclusion from his friends.

In 1933, Hitler's militaristic National Socialist German Workers Party, called the Nazi Party, rose to power. After proclaiming himself "leader" of Germany, Hitler pledged to lead the nation into a glorious future, an era in its history that he called the Third Reich. This empire, declared Hitler, would last for at least a thousand years.

Hitler never wrote down his thoughts about the Holocaust and how it should be carried out. He usually did not issue orders on paper. He spoke to his underlings and expected them to carry out his orders. There were many records and much evidence relating to the actual murders themselves.

If Hitler had always wanted to eliminate the Jews from Europe, why did he wait? There are many possible answers. One is that while Hitler wanted to eliminate all Jews, he didn't have a chance to do so until then. It is also possible that Hitler and the other important Nazis waited until they felt the public would not protest. Hitler may have decided to act because he was worried the war would turn against Germany. Or he may have thought the war was going so well that it was time to act against the Jews.

Thousands of Germans and other Europeans were involved in the Holocaust. Not all were Nazis. Some people helped save Jews, while others did not. Hitler raged against Jews in his first political speeches. He was the director and catalyst of the Holocaust. He created the atmosphere and the mechanism for death. "He made it happen."