next battle was against Great Britain. Trench warfare was the predominant strategy on the battlefield in which the protagonists launched murderous back and forth attacks which resulted only in more casualties, many resulting from the first use of poison gas.
Through these early times of battle, Hitler proved himself to be a totally dedicated warrior. As a messenger, he was forced to run through heavy barrages to deliver messages from one formation to the next. He began to believe in his own invincibility. While shells and bullets flew through the air, Hitler remained unscathed and obsessed with the idea that divine intervention was acting on his behalf. He describes an event that in his mind confirmed this thesis: moments after a “mysterious voice” told him to leave a crowded trench, an incoming artillery shell killed all of the trench’s occupants. This presumed divine intervention was yet one more contributor to his burgeoning fanatical and narcissistic mind-set.
Toward the end of 1916, Hitler received a severe leg wound from a shell burst, which earned him a convalescent leave at Beelitz near Berlin. When he visited Berlin, he was struck by the low morale of its inhabitants who were undergoing shortages of food and other hardships. This experience would only steel his resolve. His reaction to what he witnessed in the civilian population was disgust, and he labeled them as traitors and cowards. Upon return to the front lines, he was quoted as saying, “In spite of our big guns, victory would be denied us, for the invisible foes of the German people were a greater danger than the biggest cannon of the enemy.”
In the next hard fought battle against Great Britain, Hitler was awarded several more medals for bravery.
World War I was fought on two fronts: (Germany vs. France and Great Britain), and (Germany vs. Russia). When the Bolsheviks (Communists) deposed the Czar, Russia was in disarray enabling Germany to defeat and impose their terms on Russia. This renewed the hopes of the Germans fighting France and Great Britain because all the armaments from the Russian front could be deployed against Britain and France.
Alas, it was not to be. America had entered the war greatly bolstering defenses against Germany and providing more offensive push. The Germans now knew their cause was hopeless unless they could knock out the expanded forces now levied against them. With this in mind, Germany unleashed a massive offensive, but it was not enough.
Hitler never despaired and continued to fight. He received an Iron Cross First class (Germany’s highest honor) when he captured a group of French soldiers by crawling up to a shell hole where a number of French troops were huddled. Hitler lied that they were surrounded and told them to surrender. They did.
This brave act, by one man, was not enough of course, and the German lines began to fall apart as the Americans and British troops attacked vigorously. On October, 1918 the war was over for Hitler because he fell victim to a British gas attack, which temporarily blinded and immobilized him. He was sent to Pasewak hospital for treatment. Most of the patients in this hospital had hysterical blindness from mustard gas attacks and were there for psychiatric help. The wards were filled to capacity with dazed, silent men incapacitated by their horrible experiences. Many violent patients required restraints or locked wards or rooms.
One morning an old, gray-haired and clearly anguished military chaplain appeared and spoke with a physician who was busy making patient rounds on one of the large wards. The physician’s haggard expression and uncombed hair reflected the intensity and volume of his work.
“I need permission to talk to your wounded soldiers,” the chaplain said
“Sure, Chaplain, you’ve got my permission,” answered the haggard physician.
The weary chaplain stood at one end of a rectangular ward. After the introduction, he spoke. “I’m here to give you men a sad message. I don’t have to tell you how bad the war is going. You’ve all seen for yourselves. We can’t advance. Our horns lock with our enemies. They keep getting stronger and we get weaker. So far, millions have died and if this keeps up millions more will die. Germany is ruined. The people are begging to end the war. The workers are on strike and the country is paralyzed.” Then he stopped and waited for a moment to announce the final point that said it all, “The Kaiser has left the country. The war is lost.”
The chaplain’s voice trembled as he spoke with an emotionless, but tearful face. The doctor saw the chaplain regain his composure and say, “We are all going to have to trust in the goodness of our conquerors. May God’s blessing be upon all of you.” With those final words, he bent his head, turned, and walked off the ward.
The doctor listened in rapt attention. None of this came as a surprise. He had watched soldiers who had at first been eager to get back to action, but now wished only for safety or to go home. Some resorted to anything that might spare them more combat including self-inflicted wounds. He knew that this progressive decline in morale made the outcome inevitable. He was grateful that he survived the war. Conditions on the home front were deteriorating.
The doctor observed the soldiers as they gradually absorbed the chaplain’s message. Their blank expressions betrayed utter emotional exhaustion. Here, some had propped themselves on their elbows from a reclining position; there, others had turned their wheelchairs to face the pastor. Some were frozen in grotesque postures and could only turn their gaze. Those blinded by gas could only listen. At length the chaplain finished, “May God’s blessing be upon you all.” These words were met with a barely audible sigh of relief. The chaplain bowed his head, turned and walked away.
However, there was one soldier who had a different reaction. The doctor heard a loud moan and turned to see a man with a large mustache moist with tears, sitting in a chair, his straight black hair covering the left side of his forehead. He clenched his forehead with his right hand. Adolph Hitler arose from his chair, walked to his bed sobbing and threw himself face down.
The intensity of the reaction came as a surprise to the doctor who walked to the bedside and picked up the medical chart hanging from the foot of the bed. Turning to the identification page, he read the patients name…Adolph Hitler. The diagnosis page read mustard gas exposure with hysterical blindness. “Why are you crying, soldier? You should be glad because this hell is over and you’re still alive.”
The doctor’s voice silenced Hitler’s sobs, and he turned over and looked for the source of the voice standing at the foot of his bed. He stared at the doctor. “What did you say?” he asked incredulously.
“You survived. Aren’t you happy about that? I wanted to know why you were crying,” answered the surprised physician.
Hitler’s swollen eyes seemed to burst into flame as he screamed, “I cry because I feel what all loyal German soldiers should feel when they see theirs country stabbed in the back by traitors! We have surrendered even though enemy soldiers have not stepped foot on German soil. Why?” he screamed.”
The intensity of this outburst surprised the doctor. He countered, “But even the chaplain said victory was impossible. The Kaiser left the country. How do we fight when the leaders and generals have given up? The country is in chaos.”
“Our country was stabbed in the back,” said Hitler who stood up and stabbed an imaginary knife toward the floor with his right hand.
“Stabbed in the back?” quizzed the doctor.
“If you question what I have said, then you are a traitor too,” screamed the agitated Hitler.
At that statement, the doctor’s own anger erupted. After the agonies of the last four years, labeled a traitor was more than he could tolerate. He confronted the soldier, and pointed his shaking finger in his face saying, “How dare you call me a traitor. I’m a surgeon, and I spent the
