Hitler came to power the legitimate way, through participating in elections. True he broke or bent a few rules and cheated and lied but probably no more than any other politician. It is common belief that had Hitler come along at another less desperate time for Germany, history would have played itself out very differently. Germany was weak.

The people were miserable and Germans were scared after being hit with wave after wave after wave of calamity. The Nazis provided the answer for impoverished farmers, ruined shopkeepers and small-business owners, workers disillusioned with the socialists and communist parties, and a host of frustrated and embittered young people of all classes, brought up in the postwar years and without hope of personal economic security. Hitler did a lot of good for Germany, fulfilling most if not all his promises. He provided employment and stabilized the economy. Hitler told Germans they were the master race and promised them the world. He also provided them with a scapegoat; someone to pinpoint their anger at: the Jew. If someone had to suffer and pay the price for Germany s prosperity then let it be the Jew. Such was their mentality.

History books should not portray the Germans as evil; their eager acceptance of Hitler s ideas and policies is the product of human weakness and imperfection. But Hitler was evil. Perhaps the most evil of men. An amoral man he viewed his fellow human beings as mere bricks in the political structure he wanted to erect. Hitler has hurt and permanently scarred the world with his destructive message, a message that still lives. But we must never forget the Holocaust or Hitler. Both event and figure have something to show about humanity that is ugly but always there; always ready to strike out. If it is forgotten, it might happen again.