It could all have turned out so differently. Yes, Hitler’s childhood and youth is troubled, even bizarre. His paternal ancestry is obscure, involving illegitimacy and hereditary mental illnesses. His father, a retired Customs official, is a brute and beats him regularly. And his beloved mother dies painfully of cancer when he is only eighteen. And yet … when the young Adolf leaves his Austrian hometown of Linz for Vienna, with money in the bank and a gentleman’s wardrobe in his suitcase, his dream is to become a great artist. He submits his portfolio to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts – and is rejected. His money runs out. His dreams have been dashed. He ends up in a shelter for homeless men. WWI will become his turning point. As a soldier he fervently believes in a German victory. Hitler is lying blinded in a hospital when Germany does surrender, and he feels betrayed by the politicians. His mind is now wide open to, and embraces virulent racist anti-Semitic ideas. And this is when Adolf Hitler finds his voice, and people who believe in what he has to say…