EVIL DICTATOR QUIZ

This post is going to be different.  For Christmas, my wife got me “The History Buff’s Guide to World War II” by Thomas Flagel.  I’m going to share some of the interesting stories and facts about WWII on this site.  Just skimming through the book last night, I was intrigued by a section comparing the two infamous dictators of WWII.  

Pop quiz time.  Pick the dictator that the statement matches.  Choose Hitler or Stalin.  Good luck.   The answers are below the pictures.

1. He was a mama’s boy.
2. His father was a cobbler.
3. His father was abusive.
4. He felt no allegiance to his birthplace.
5. He hated school.
6. He had some talent in the arts.
7. He was above average in intelligence and had a good memory.
8. He was a choirboy.
9. He did not graduate from high school.
10. He served time.
11. Someone close to him committed suicide because of him.
12. He did not care for wealth and luxury.
13. He used purges to eliminate threats to his power.
14. He had no experience in military leadership.
15. He did not get along with his generals.
16. He did not visit the front, a field hospital, or a bombed out neighborhood during WWII.

1. He was a mama’s boy. BOTH  Each loved and were loved by their mom.
2. His father was a cobbler. BOTH  Hitler’s father moved on to be a civil servant.  They were middle class.  Stalin’s father was lower-middle class until his shoe-making business failed and they were plunged into poverty.
3. His father was abusive. BOTH  Hitler’s father was an alcoholic who beat him occasionally.  Still, he would later say that he loved his father.  Stalin’s father was an alcoholic, too.  His mother left him and took Josef with her.
4. He felt no allegiance to his birthplace. BOTH Hitler was born in Austria, but considered himself to be a German.  Joseph Dzhugashvili was born in Georgia, but had no love for it.
5. He hated school. BOTH  Both were bored and did not do well.  Both hated their teachers, as they did all intellectuals.  Neither took advice from them when they ruled.  Both got in fights in school – Hitler verbally, Stalin physically.
6. He had some talent in the arts. BOTH  Hitler considered himself to be an artist, but he was turned down by an art academy in Vienna.  He painted post cards to earn a living.  Stalin was something of a poet and had some of his work published as a young revolutionary.
7. He was above average in intelligence and had a good memory. BOTH 
8. He was a choirboy. BOTH  Stalin even thought about becoming a priest.  He ended up becoming an atheist.
9. He did not graduate from high school. BOTH  Hitler seems to have passed enough classes, but got no certificate of completion.  Stalin went to the seminary, but was expelled for not showing up to take exams.
10. He served time. BOTH  Hitler spent six months in prison for the Beer Hall Putsch.  Stalin was arrested seven times and was often sent.
11. Someone close to him committed suicide because of him. BOTH  Hitler had some sort of sick relationship with his niece Geli Raubal.  She apparently committed suicide because he was too possessive and wasn’t allowed to have her own life.  Stalin’s first wife, Nadia, shot herself after a big argument about Stalin’s role in the great famine of 1932.
12. He did not care for wealth and luxury. BOTH  Hitler lived in a simple house in Berlin.  He did not loot museums like Goering did.  Stalin had several confiscated estates, but his personal quarters were simple and poorly furnished.
13. He used purges to eliminate threats to his power. BOTH  After he took power, Hitler used the “Night of the Long Knives” to eliminate the leadership of the Stormtroopers.  Stalin used the “Great Terror” (or “Great Purge”) in 1937-38 to execute anyone who he considered a threat to communism.  Many army officers were eliminated.
14. He had no experience in military leadership. BOTH  Hitler had been a corporal in WWI.  Stalin was in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, but his role was political.
15. He did not get along with his generals. BOTH  Hitler considered himself a better strategist than his generals. Few of his generals at the start of the war were not fired during the war.  Hitler grabbed more and more military power as the war continued and German fortunes got worse, which was not a coincidence.  Stalin famously purged most of his generals in the 1920’s because of paranoia. 
16. He did not visit the front, a field hospital, or a bombed-out neighborhood during WWII. BOTH When Berlin was surrounded, Hitler stayed in his bunker and did nothing to bolster the morale of the soldiers fighting for him.  Stalin’s one trip to visit the troops had him at a site miles away from the fighting.  It was basically a photo op. 
    

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-lives-of-hitler-and-stalin-two-sides-of-the-same-coin

The History Buff’s Guide to World War II by Thomas Flagel pp. 71-80