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In September of 1919 Hitler joined the German Workers' Party, a small, extreme nationalist group. It soon changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitespartei – NSDAP or 'Nazi' for short.)
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Hitler joined the Nazi party the year it was founded and became the leader in July of 1921
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On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany.
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Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) quickly became a regime in which Germans enjoyed no guaranteed basic rights.
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German troops marched into Austria without any form of fight. A day later German troops left Austria and announced that "Anschluss" or the union of German speaking countries was completed.
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The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined.
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Sudetenland is northern, southwest, and western areas of Czechoslovakia which speak primarily German. In October of 1938, German soldiers occupied Sudetenland after occupying Austria in March.
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German forces occupied Poland on September 1, 1939. In Poland, German forces employed a military strategy known as blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower.
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In April 1940 German forces occupied Denmark and then went across the North Sea and in the same month occupied Norway. In this picture a Norwegian boy is standing with his families possessions after they are forced to relocate after the occupation.
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In May of 1940 German soldiers moved fast and within 31 days occupied Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France. The image shows German soldiers on the main street in Paris, Champs-Élysées.
