Editing Adolf Hitler (section)

=== World War 2 ===
Over his eleven years in power, Hitler had built up a huge army and air force, with massive numbers of planes, tanks, and trucks. Now he used them to great effect, conquering Denmark and Norway, and launching attacks on France. By this time, French troops were stationed all along Germany's western border. But Hitler distracted them by invading the Netherlands and Belgium. As the French and British responded by moving north, German tanks broke through to the south and advanced into France. A month later, a triumphant Hitler was in Paris.

[[File:Wp4cdf6643_02.jpg|thumb|Hitler in front of Eiffel Tower.|link=Special:FilePath/Wp4cdf6643_02.jpg]]
Only a narrow stretch of the sea now let between Hitler and the British Isles. He hoped that the British would willingly surrender. But the new British Prime Minister, [[w:c:real-life-heroes-and-good-guys:Winston Churchill|Winston Churchill]], was determined to fight to the end. 

Hitler watched, frustrated, as the British air force won the battle for control of the skies. Eventually, he gave up and turned his attention east. Recklessly breaking the non-aggression he'd signed with [[Joseph Stalin]] he now sent his troops into Russia, which would ultimately be his undoing.

The Russian troops were slow to respond but mighty in number. By November, German forces were engaged in bitter warfare, as the temperature plummeted below freezing.

==== Death ====
By mid-1945, Hitler was utterly defeated, and, finding no way out of the situation, refusing to surrender or be captured, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30<sup>th</sup>, 1945 by shooting himself in the head. His wife of one day, Eva Braun, committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill. He killed his dog before killing himself. Their remains were later cremated. It is believed the Soviets found his body around 1970 and later cremated him and his wife Eva.

The Third Reich would not long survive after the death of the Führer; in his last will and testament, Hitler appointed [[Joseph Goebbels]] as Chancellor of Germany and Grand Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]] as President of Germany. Goebbels and his wife Magda would murder their children and commit suicide themselves one day after Hitler's death, and only one month later, Dönitz and Chief of Staff [[Alfred Jodl]] agreed to sign the instruments of unconditional surrender on May 23, formally putting an end to Hitler's reign of terror and vision of a "thousand-year Reich".

<gallery position="center" widths="220" captiontextcolor="#8e8e8e" bordercolor="#8e8e8e" mode="nolines" heights="220" perrow="2">
File:Hitler 20 April 1945.jpg|Last picture of Hitler taken before his death ten days later.
File:Stars & Stripes & Hitler Dead2.jpg|''Stars & Stripes'' paper announcing Hitler's death.
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