Rise of Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, and rapidly transformed the Weimar Republic into a totalitarian one-party dictatorship through a combination of legal manipulation, intimidation, and violence.
Preceding Causes
The Great Depression causing mass unemployment (6 million by 1932), perceived humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles and the 'stab in the back' myth, weaknesses in the Weimar constitutional system (Article 48 emergency powers), hyperinflation of 1923 eroding middle-class savings and trust, and the Nazi Party's effective propaganda and organizational machinery.
Historical Consequences
The Holocaust (genocide of 6 million Jews and millions of Roma, disabled people, political opponents, and others), World War II, German military occupation of most of continental Europe, and the post-war division of Germany and reshaping of the international order.
World War II
The deadliest conflict in human history, killing an estimated 70–85 million people. The war included the Holocaust — the genocide of 6 million Jews and millions of others — and ended in the Pacific theater with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Holocaust
The systematic, state-sponsored genocide of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.