Adolf Hitler

Real Life

Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 - April 30, 1945) was the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II. He came to power after World War I because he represented a beacon of hope for the economically devastated people of Germany. Commonly thought of as the worst person who ever lived, Hitler masterminded the 'Final Solution to the Jewish Problem'; the Holocaust. Taking place alongside World War II, Hitler systematically had 6,000,000 Jewish people and 5,000,000 others killed at death camps located across Nazi controlled territories. The final death count from Hitler's actions was close to eleven million people killed for being 'undesirable' to a man seeing a 'master race' of Aryans.

Hitler was intending to become an artist in Vienna, but failed the entrance examination. He enlisted for the First World War, and never was promoted beyond the rank of a Corporal. This was part of the reason Weimar Republic President Paul von Hindenburg did not like Hitler; he felt he was not high enough in a chain of command to control a country properly. The corporal became a commander, and from 1933 until 1945 Hitler ruled over Germany as he saw fit. However, as World War II wore on and the Allied armies marched their way toward Berlin with victory all but certain, Hitler, holed up in an underground bunker, took his own life.

Video Games

Curiously (possibly so as not to touch a controversial subject), is not present in the majority of games set during World War II; even titles that portray the conflict with historical accuracy rarely use his appearance. This is not always the case, however, and some games go to lengths to portray Hitler with almost cartoonish absurdity. As one notable example, Wolfenstein 3-D features a boss fight against Hitler in a robot suit.

Other Appearances

Hitler in the PS1 version of Persona 2: Innocent Sin.

As another example, the plot of the Japanese version of Bionic Commando, the title of which translates to Top Secret: Hitler's Revival, features a plotline in which the player must thwart militants that have resurrected Hitler through cloning technology. However, in the North American version, Hitler was renamed "Master D," and all direct references to Hitler and Nazis were removed. Master D's character portrait, however, is still recognizably Hitler.

In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the player's party at one point must do battle with Hitler, who wields the Spear of Destiny and the power of the Persona Nyarlathotep. In the PSP remake of the game, Hitler still appears, but in both the Japanese and English language versions, he is given the thinly veiled disguise of a trench coat and a pair of sunglasses, and he is referred to as "Fuhrer" in his dialogue boxes rather than Hitler.