The Rise of the Nazi Party

Adolf Hitler builds a fringe political group into the Nazi Party; Hitler's men attempt a coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923.

Hitler is arrested for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch; Hitler begins writing his political manifesto, "Mein Kampf," while serving time in prison.

Hitler blames unemployment and other economic maladies caused by the Great Depression on Germany's democratic Weimar government.

Hitler wins the hearts and minds of Germans as he plots to rid his country of the Jews; over 1,000 synagogues are burned in the November 1938 attacks known as Kristallnacht.

Hitler summons his generals and reveals his plans to annex Austria and the German-speaking lands in Czechoslovakia.

The German people begin to see through the facade of the Nazi propaganda machine as the war changes course in 1941.

Hitler and the Nazi Party groom the German people into thinking the genocide of Jewish people was a morally correct decision.

Numerous defeats hurt Hitler's image with the German people; two army colonels plot to assassinate Hitler.

Allied armies advance on Berlin in January 1945; the war ends shortly after Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945.

In the closing months of the war, the Allies discover the true scale of the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.