I've always wondered what it'll be like for people who met him face to face..

A powerful presence or what..?

I read that he had very hypnotic eyes. Full of passion which he transferred to others (weaklings IMO).
Those who didn't succumb to his "charisma" were quickly removed from their positions and replaced with the ones who shared his vision of the Reich.
According to the book I read he felt anxiety(stress?) around high society, a bit of an inferiority complex from the old days IMO.
Socialising with the people from the street and not so smart women brought him great joy.

@SAINT

If you have a reasonably powerful mind(will) you probably wouldn't be impressed, because the moment you would show your opposition he'd start yelling at you.
Egocentric megalomaniac is a good term for Hitler I suppose.

Originally Posted by godofthunder9010

I worry that Russia will have its own Hitler sometime in the near future. They couldn't be better primed for it.

A good Frederick Forsyth novel called 'Icon' deals with just such a possibility.

Aye, the "Ghost" army was a beautiful diversion during D-Day. They sent the fake soldiers (Ruperts) and whatnot to Calais. For a good display of this, check out "The Longest Day."

Hitler did great things. Terrible things, But great things.

Hitler was a terrible man, but an excellent leader.

Yeah. He wasn't very fond of the Jewish.

I can't even begin where to start how much I hate him.

Hitler was not the only person that hated Jews and Germany was not the only country where anti-semitism was rampant and was not the only country trying to get rid of the Jews, France and Britian set very low quotas for the number of Jews they would allow into their countries. The extermination of the Jews was called the final solution for a reason, they other attempts by Germany to rid themselves of the "Jewish plague" had failed. Just to think, if France and Britain had allowed jews into their countries the Holocaust may have never happened, Israel may never have come to be, and 9/11 might not have happened. Just something for you to ponder.

Back to the question. I think the two go hand in hand, seems like many, many geniouses end up going insane because they can not talk to anyone of their equivalent (loneliness is a powerful force) or they try to pursue a problem/challenge that was beyond their limits and for the first time in their lives could not figure out the solution and eventually were driven insane, or in some cases they invented a powerful new weapon that was meant to be a deterrent and when it was used they felt so guilty that they either went insane or killed themselves. (Isn't that what happened to Oppenheimer? One of the designers of the Atomic Bomb.)

well..personally i dont believe Hitler was insane..id rather feel he was lonely.

now, before you start flinging the tomatoes..have a think first.

Exceptionally bright. Talented. Artistic. and bounced around like a ping pong ball family wise. probably the shyest wallflower imaginable. Probably the butt of ever ill humored joke...every twist of the tail his school friends could come up with. I have seen it so many times..if you are different, and you stick out..either bright or not..you get hammered.

So you grow up..secretly wishing, secretly hoping.just for someone to talk too..and you clear finally into adulthood. Where you suddenly get a war thrown in your face. Not just a usal run of the mill war mind you. a technologically enhanced one. Planes. machine guns. Poison Gas. Good lord knows what else. You might have lost a little more of the innocence there and maybee a few of what friends you might have had that could have guided you better.

so..in a few years..you are really starting to starve for any type of companionship...and along comes a few, off set nuts that despite their own quirks..aint judging the new kid. and they accept him..a war veteran. they let him hang around....

and they discover that the young man..who wanted to say something..anything..can speak. why not? its been bottled up inside him..waiting to get out for years. and these friends put that to work for them. resulting in some jail time for him...

where hes put in with some one that will listen..and probably tells him "hey thats great! you ought to write that down"...and the rest is history.

Everything else..is aftermath, friend or confidont induced. Oh its his signature, its his speeches, its what he wanted to do i guess...but i think the pride got him too, along with the desire just to have someone like him.

I don't know about the poor little picked on Adolfi business, but I can say that the man figured out how to make friends and influence masses of people. He was no less charismatic in person than he was talking to the masses, and very few people saw through to the rotten core.

Mark, you're absolutely right about one thing. Hitler was a product of World War I. After trying to gather assorted body parts from a comrade who had been blown to bits, and somehow surviving any one of those insane charges across "No-Man's-Land", the morality side of the brain is likely to not have much left. He volunteered for one of the most dangerous missions possible, that of being a messenger, so people calling him a coward makes little sense.

As far as the Holocaust goes, perhaps it took something that bad for Antisemitics everywhere to abandon their prejudices. The world today is a lot more careful about their view of Jews because they see what blind hatred did in Natzi Germany.