Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
World War I made Adolf Hitler.
Before the war, Hitler was aimless, a failed artist, essentially a nobody with little chance of rising in society. The war gave him purpose as well as a respectable identity as a war hero. As much as one thing can create another, the war created Hitler. It was the cause of his euphoria in 1914 when he enlisted and led to his mental collapse in 1918 when Germany surrendered. Hitler vowed vengeance against the “November criminals” who he believed had stabbed Germany in the back, including most infamously Jewish elements as well as communists, socialists, and indeed anyone against war.