While recuperating at a World War I hospital in 1918, Adolf Hitler underwent a cataclysmic shift in political drive and mindset. In Mystery Files: Hitler, produced for the Smithsonian Channel in 2011, this 25-minute TV documentary takes a focused look at the events that so dramatically changed Hitler from a starving artist to an infamous dictator. Some fact, some speculation come together to form an informative whole. Born in 1889 Austria, Hitler was orphaned at a young age. He showed an inherent artistic talent, with a sensitive eye for detail, and aspired to be a painter. His dream went unfulfilled, however, as he was declined admission to Vienna Academy twice. In the years 1909-1910, Hitler was essentially homeless. He drifted to Munich in 1913, with no prospects and little ambition. This changed in 1914, when Hitler attended a spirited political rally. Germany had invaded Belgium and France, and Great Britain had declared war on Germany. Full of loyalty, as World War I began, Hitler enlisted as a private in the German army. From the years 1914-1918, Hitler called the embattled trenches of the western front home. His fellow soldiers viewed him as an oddball, as he often sat quiet sketching alone in a corner. He served as a dispatch runner, which earned him an Iron Cross. In 1916, Hitler was wounded, catching shrapnel in the leg and sent to the hospital. It was in this first stay that his antisemitic views began to form, as he felt Jews were underrepresented in the military and therefore did not support Germany. After returning to battle, a traumatic poison gas attack proved to be the deciding factor in his transformation. Blinded and unable to breath, Hitler was sent first to the infirmary and then to a psychiatric hospital, where he was diagnosed with hysterical blindness. Blindness was a horrific fate for the aspiring artist, and his mind faltered. As a psychosomatic illness, a doctor felt that Hitler could recover with spurred motivation… so he played off of political and Germanic views to achieve the desired result. Hitler emerged from his war-induced hysteria with his sight recovered, but found Germany defeated, humbled and humiliated. He then exploited and used this sense of humiliation as a Nazi platform during his rise to power in subsequent years…
