What Is Nazism?
Nazism — short for National Socialism — was the far-right, fascist, ultranationalist, and racist ideology of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945.
It was a totalitarian worldview that combined extreme nationalism, pseudoscientific racism, antisemitism, authoritarian dictatorship, territorial expansion, and violent opposition to democracy, communism, and liberalism.
Why is it called “National Socialism”?
This is one of the confusing parts.
The word “socialism” in the Nazi Party's name did not mean socialism in the Marxist sense. The Nazis deliberately used the word partly to attract workers and distinguish themselves from traditional conservative parties. Once Hitler came to power, the regime crushed independent socialist and communist organizations and imprisoned or killed many of their members.
How Nazism Started
Nazism did not exist during World War I, Hitler was just a soldier in the German army — unknown, no party, no political power, no Nazism yet.
The leader of Germany in WW1 is Kaiser Wilhelm II (grandson of Queen Victoria of Britain — actually related to the royal families of Britain and Russia).
Kaiser Wilhelm II was a proud emperor who led Germany into WWI and lost it. He ran away in disgrace → Germany had no leader, no pride, no money. That emptiness and anger is exactly where Nazism grew. Without the Kaiser’s failure, Hitler would have remained an unknown painter and soldier.
Nazism was the child of World War I — it did not exist before or during WWI. It was born from the defeat and suffering after WWI ended. Hitler used the pain of WWI to say: "We were betrayed! The Jews stabbed us in the back! We need a master race! We need to conquer!"
No WWI → probably no Nazism → no Holocaust → no WWII.
Kaiser flees → Germany humiliated & poor → people angry & confused → Hitler steps in to say: "I will fix this!"
Hitler's Ideology
Hitler’s ideology — laid out primarily in his book Mein Kampf (1925–1926) and refined in Nazi speeches and policies — was a toxic, all-encompassing worldview. It combined extreme nationalism, pseudoscientific racism, antisemitism, territorial expansion, authoritarianism, and anti-democratic/anti-communist hatred.
He placed the so-called "Aryan race" (blonde, blue-eyed Germanic/Nordic peoples) at the very top: the "master race," inherently superior, creative, noble, and destined to rule.
Labeled other groups — Jews, Slavs, Roma, Black people, and ethnic minorities — as "subhuman" or "inferior races" that supposedly weakened, corrupted, or threatened the Aryan race.
How Eva Braun and Hitler Met Each Other
Eva Braun was 17 years old and working as an assistant at the photography studio of Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler's official photographer. Hitler, who was 40, frequently visited Hoffmann's studio.
According to accounts from the time, their first meeting was fairly ordinary. Eva reportedly didn't initially know much about Hitler beyond recognizing him as a prominent political figure.
Hitler became interested in her, and they gradually began a romantic relationship.
Their relationship was unusual
For much of their relationship, Eva was kept largely out of public view.
Hitler was extremely concerned about his public image and cultivated an image of being devoted primarily to Germany and his political mission. He therefore generally did not present Eva publicly as his partner.
Eva lived in Munich and later spent considerable time at Hitler's residences, while Hitler continued his political career.
Their relationship also had serious difficulties, including periods when Eva felt neglected and isolated. There were reports of two suicide attempts by Eva in the 1930s, although historians differ over some details surrounding them.
Eventually, Eva became part of Hitler's private inner circle. She remained with him in the Führerbunker during the final battle for Berlin in April 1945, despite knowing that Germany was collapsing.
Suicide Attempts
Eva Braun was 20 years old when she made her first known suicide attempt. She shot herself in the neck with her father's pistol.
Historians generally connect this to her unhappy relationship with Hitler. At that point, Hitler was increasingly absorbed in politics and frequently absent. Braun wanted greater attention and commitment from him, but their relationship was largely secret.
The attempt apparently succeeded in getting Hitler to pay more attention to her afterward.
Second Attempt
Her second attempt was more serious. She took an overdose of sleeping pills.
Again, the context was her relationship with Hitler. She felt neglected and frustrated because Hitler spent much of his time on political work and maintained considerable distance from her.
Her sister Gretl Braun discovered her and she received medical treatment.
Why didn't she simply leave him?
Eva Braun was deeply attached to Hitler despite the difficulties.
Their relationship was also unusual because Hitler deliberately kept Braun largely out of public view. He wanted to present himself publicly as a man devoted entirely to Germany rather than as a conventional family man.
Braun therefore lived in a strange situation: she was Hitler's long-term companion, but she wasn't his wife and had very little public status.
Hitler's Defeat
Eva Braun actually never faced imprisonment or persecution after Hitler's defeat, because she died at the same time as Hitler.
Hitler and Eva Braun married in the bunker on April 29, 1945. The next day, April 30, Hitler committed suicide. Eva also committed suicide by taking cyanide. Their bodies were then taken outside and burned.
They had been together privately for years, but he had never married her. They had been romantically involved for roughly 14 years before marrying. Hitler had no other wives, although he had relationships with other women before and during his political career.
Hitler's Siblings
Most of them had already died before Nazi Germany collapsed. Hitler had several siblings, but only Paula Hitler, his younger sister, was still alive when he died in 1945.
Paula was not imprisoned or prosecuted after the war.
However, she did experience some questioning and investigation by U.S. authorities because of her relationship to Hitler. She was reportedly detained briefly by U.S. forces in 1945 and questioned about her brother and his private life.
Afterward, she lived a relatively quiet life in Austria and generally avoided public attention. She died in 1960, aged 64.
What about his other siblings?
Hitler had several siblings who died before 1945:
Gustav Hitler — died as an infant
Ida Hitler — died as a child
Otto Hitler — died shortly after birth
Edmund Hitler — died in childhood
Alois Hitler Jr. — survived until 1956
Angela Hitler — survived until 1949
Paula Hitler — survived until 1960
His half-siblings Alois Jr. and Angela also survived the Nazi period.
Why Hitler Hated Jews
Hitler's hatred of Jews was not based on anything Jews had actually done as a group. It came from a combination of older European antisemitism, racist ideology, German nationalism, conspiracy theories, and Hitler's own radical beliefs.
Antisemitism already existed in Europe
Anti-Jewish prejudice had existed in Europe for centuries before Hitler.
Jews had been falsely accused of things such as causing economic problems, spreading disease, or secretly controlling governments. These ideas created a long-standing environment in which antisemitic politicians could gain followers.
Hitler didn't invent antisemitism; he adopted and radicalized existing ideas.
Hitler turned it into a racial ideology
Hitler didn't simply regard Judaism as a religion he disliked. He considered Jews a separate and supposedly inferior "race."
That meant that, in Nazi thinking, even a person who converted from Judaism to Christianity could still be considered Jewish because of their ancestry.
This was fundamentally a pseudoscientific racial belief, not legitimate science.
The conspiracy theory that Jews caused Germany's defeat
After World War I, Germany experienced enormous political and economic problems.
Germany had lost the war, suffered severe inflation, unemployment and political instability.
Hitler promoted the false "stab-in-the-back" myth, claiming that Germany's military had not really been defeated and that internal enemies—particularly Jews and communists—had betrayed Germany.
There was no factual basis for the idea that German Jews had collectively caused Germany's defeat.
Hitler blamed Jews for both capitalism and communism
This sounds contradictory, but Nazi propaganda did it anyway.
Hitler and the Nazis portrayed Jews as supposedly responsible for international banking and capitalism, communism and the Soviet Union, Germany's economic problems, political instability, and Germany's defeat in WWI.
These contradictory accusations were part of a broader conspiracy worldview in which Jews were portrayed as secretly controlling opposing forces.
Holocaust
During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered approximately 6 million Jews, including about two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
This means that Jews were the largest single targeted ethnic/religious group murdered by the Nazi regime.
However, the Nazis also deliberately persecuted and killed many other groups, including Soviet prisoners of war (roughly 3 million died in German captivity, many deliberately through starvation, disease, and mistreatment), non-Jewish Polish civilians (roughly 1.5–2 million were deliberately killed), Roma and Sinti (estimates commonly range from about 220,000 to 500,000), people with disabilities (roughly 200,000–250,000), Serb civilians and other Yugoslav peoples (hundreds of thousands), Political opponents, resistance members, homosexual men, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others.
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