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He turned to amphetamines, but these only increased his intimations of mortality. On another June morning, almost 21 years to the day after he caught the attention of the Bavarian professor, Hitler was taken on a triumphal tour of Paris. He paused at Napoleon's tomb, placed his cap over his heart, bowed and gazed at the crypt. Then the Fuhrer turned to a favorite and said somberly, "You will build my tomb." But construction had already begun on that mausoleum. At its completion five years later, it would also accommodate some 50 million others. It was called the Third Reich, and its designer was Adolf Hitler. The failed student was destined to be remembered as an architect after all.
NEXT WEEK
PART 3: Desperate Years
Hitler sweeps through Europe, but a formidable foe emerges
PART 4: What If . . .?
How the outcome could have been different
PLUS: Japan and the war in the Pacific