The Worst Dictators of the 20th Century Essay Example

There are a few reasons why people may suggest that Hitler is one of the worst dictators of the 20th century. For example, one of the most famous ones is the holocaust. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany systematically killed around 6 million Jews across Europe. The holocaust began after Hitler was renamed chancellor in January 1933, and immediately the Nazis began excluding and targeting Jews. Anti-semitic propaganda increased, and Jews were forbidden to join the army. During WW2 in 1939, German confiscated Jewish property and forced them to distinguish themselves by stamping passports with a red-letter j and even went as far as having them wear armbands in public and not allowing Jewish doctors, dentists or lawyers to treat Germans. At this time, Hitler also introduced Jewish concentration camps and forced labour camps, where he would brutally use the labour of prisoners to meet labour shortages and economic gain. Hitler even went as far as opening Killing Centres specified for killing Jews. Another fact is his wife Eva Braun ended her life with poison shortly after the wedding ceremony. Hitler was found dead next to her with a gunshot wound.

Another European Dictator known to be one of the worst is Mussolini. Bento Mussolini, also known as Hitler's role model, was the prime minister of Italy (at the same time that Hitler was the man of power in Germany). In the beginning, Mussolini disapproved of Germany's actions. However, over time grew to support anti-Semitic measures. In October 1935, the Italians invaded Ethiopia using chemical attacks to expand the Italian Empire (The Abyssinian crisis). The Italians used many different weapons, including planes, tanks, guns and poisonous gases. Abyssinia was no match for the Italian army, as they only had Caverly and more land as an advantage which changed quickly. In May 1936, Italian troops entered the capital of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) victoriously. Soon after, in October 1936, an agreement was made called the Rome-Berlin axis linking both Germany and Italy. However, it was formalised in May 1939 (just before WW2) by the pact of steel and included Japan. The Pact of Steel was a military and political alliance between Italy, Germany and Japan. Mussolini was finally executed by the Italian government in April 1945, right before WW2 ended.