When people think of World War II, they think of Hitler and the Holocaust, but rarely of how this whole mess started. This essay will show how Hitler came to power and what events ultimately led to the holocaust. After World War I, Germany was in ruins. First, during the war, merchant ships were kept away from German ports by Allied warships, leading to many shortages. These shortages mainly involved food and coal, which left people hungry and freezing in their homes. There was also a shortage of soap, making it almost impossible for Germans to stay clean. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay It all led to a disease that caused the deaths of 40,000 Germans when the flu spread across Europe. The Keizar did not listen to what the people wanted, even though he could have improved their lives in many ways. This led public opinion to turn against him. “In October 1918, German naval leaders ordered the Kiel fleet to put to sea for combat” (Brooman 23). But two sailors on two different ships refused the order and were both arrested. This only makes things worse. The other Kiel sailors organized protest meetings because they feared that their comrades would be shot in the event of a mutiny. They were soon joined by workers and soldiers. They created a council to run the city. Hitler gained power in Germany for four main reasons, including the fact that authority was divided into rivalries, the conflicting presence of the Nazis in Germany, the parties and the president offered him the position of chancellor, but mainly because of the effect of the Great Depression on Germany's economy. The Weimar government had many weaknesses, including the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and conflicts with communists, conservatives and right-wing parties. After Germany's defeat, the Kaiser fled on November 9 and his place was replaced by Friedrich Ebert, the leader of Germany's largest socialist party. He immediately set out to give the German people what they wanted. On November 11, 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending the war. The treaty ultimately ended up harming Germany more than it helped. Germany lost a lot of land and had to pay reparations to its former enemies. The Germans were ashamed of the way they had lost the war. Ebert also improved living conditions, starting with shorter workdays, helping the unemployed, increasing food supplies, and allowing free speech and elections to parliament (Brooman 23). These changes made many Germans happier, except for a group of communists called the Spartacus League who did not agree with everything Ebert said or did (Brooman 23). The Spartacus League wanted Germany to be ruled by councils of workers and soldiers rather than Parliament. They first attempted to seize power by starting a revolution, they roamed the streets firing shots and seizing important buildings by force on January 5, 1919. The socialist government responded by using former soldiers (right-wing groups) and numerous violence with which they took over the buildings occupied by the Spartacists and assassinated the leaders of their groups. Shortly after, Ebert organized the parliamentary elections. His own party,Social Democrats, won the greatest number of votes. On February 11, 1919, the new parliament met in the city of Weimar and named Ebert president of Germany for the first time (Brooman 23). Many groups like communists, conservatives and right-wing parties were still opposed to democracy. Every time the economy declined, support for these groups increased. One of the main reasons for Nazi success was inflation, the American stock market crash and the Great Depression. Germany struggled financially because instead of raising its wartime taxes like many other countries did to pay for the war, it printed money. This money very quickly lost its value. Things started getting more and more expensive. To solve this problem, the United States loaned Germany $200 million so that its economy would recover (Beck 471). In 1929, the American economy collapsed due to wealth distribution, overproduction, trade, and agriculture. When the US economy collapsed the German economy also fell, the US wanted their money back in Germany causing businesses in Germany to go bankrupt and more people to be employed which would come to be called the Great Depression (Beck 472). Germany was one of the countries hardest hit by the Depression: six million workers out of a population of sixty-four million were unemployed in 1933 (Brooman 42). The depression changed the Germans, they were unemployed and hungry, which made them angry. in government. Germans quickly began to support parties that promised to end the economic depression if elected to Parliament. There was a group that was the most popular and convincing party of all. The National Socialist Party, better known as the Nazi Party, promised citizens jobs if voted into power, as many other parties did. And people who weren't unemployed often voted for them because they didn't want communism. What led Hitler to become chancellor in 1933 was because he was a great orator and because the Nazis spread their ideas through propaganda. Hitler was able to convince crowds that his ideas were correct. He began his speeches by listing everything that was wrong in Germany and everywhere else in the world, speaking louder and louder as the speech progressed, he always ended his speeches by asking "and whose fault is it?" » to which the crowd responded "it's all / the fault / of the Jews." » (Brooman 52). Another method the Nazis used to gain power was propaganda (changing people's way of thinking through advertising). They used slogans rather than detailed policies. The slogans spoke of returning to Germany's traditional ways and uniting Germans behind one leader. Their policies of returning to traditional methods have never been criticized because they have never been clear enough about what they meant in terms of policies. When industrialists began to criticize Nazi plans to nationalize industry, the Nazis simply abandoned the policy. Whenever they could, they found ways to propagate their beliefs that Jews, communists, Weimar politicians, and the Treaty of Versailles were the cause of Germany's problems (Walsh 153). They spread their ideas through the eight newspapers they own, brochures and political posters. One of the posters shows a family, a son and a father sitting at a table, both disappointed and frustrated, and a woman holding a.