The Truths
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was not a psychopath. The reasons behind his irrational hatred of people of Jewish faith were beyond simple antisemitism. He wasn't the first to blame Jews for the misfortunes of Germany. No, Hitler simply found himself inheriting a rather fortuitous predisposition... and made a horrifying choice.
By the turn of the 20th century, the Templar Order had succeeded in driving the Brotherhood of Assassins into hiding. Ezio, the last great Assassin, built his Brotherhood to function even without centralized organization, but to truly flourish, the Brotherhood required a leader. After his passing, no one man could match the skill and charisma Ezio Auditore da Firenze possessed. The Brotherhood survived on Ezio's legend and a century of accumulated wealth, but they lacked the leadership to emerge from the shadows. With but an Inner Circle of elders, the Brotherhood persisted, waiting for their next great Messiah.
At the end of the Great War, the Assassin Order sought a new means to hide themselves among the general populace. Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated by a rogue brother of the order. While agents within the United States government thwarted the Templar Woodrow Wilson's attempt at creating a unified global government under Templar control, the Brotherhood's Inner Circle found themselves on the verge of being compromised by Templar agents. They needed to act fast to ensure the survival of the Brotherhood. After informing the entire Brotherhood of the situation, the elders, with the Templars at the doorstep, cleansed the Inner Circle with holy fire.
The Templar Order at the time made their stronghold in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles and the post war political situation in Germany allowed Templar Masters to gain easy influence over the masses. With the Templars firmly in control of post war Germany, a young Templar named Adolf Hitler made his entrance.
Adolf Hitler was born to the Templar Cross and trained since birth to do one thing and one thing only: Eliminate the Assassin Brotherhood. Since his early teens, Hitler hunted the Brotherhood, intending to expose their members to the rest of the Cross. When the Templar Order took control of Germany at the end of the war, the Brotherhood soon established their own presence within the country. Naturally, Hitler and his agents followed soon after in relentless pursuit. In 1919, he tracked down the location of the temple of the Assassin Inner Circle only to find everything burned beyond recognition. With the death of the Assassin Elders and the destruction of their documents, the Brotherhood once again eluded Templar capture. Hitler's superiors assured him that this was the end of the Brotherhood. The Assassins were in hiding, their Elders dead and their main line of communication severed. Templar leaders were certain that the Brotherhood would be easily rooted out within the decade.
Adolf was not convinced. Since the days of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, the Assassins have survived anything from Crusades to Papal Condemnation. For nearly a thousand years, networks of Assassins have endured with or without a leader while hunted to near extinction. The destruction of the Inner Circle will do nothing to unsettle the Brotherhood. But the Templar hierarchy was immutable. Hitler could not go against the wishes of his superiors... at least not publicly. So young Adolf Hitler quietly bowed to his Templar Masters, while covertly tracking the remnants of the Brotherhood.
In 1923, Hitler's predictions about the Brotherhood's fate rang truer by the day. In four years, the Templars have captured a grand total of 2 alleged Assassins. Hitler was at their "interrogation," and he was unconvinced that either were Assassins. An Assassin dies to a Templar with a look of hatred and determination. These men died confused with stains in their pants. Fortunately for Hitler, his superiors finally swallowed their pride after four years of missteps. Hitler was once again activated as a Templar agent.
Since the cleansing, Hitler and his agents worked tirelessly to discover the new cover identities of the Assassins. Naturally the old artist studios and brothels that hid former Assassins were under new management. Templar leadership wanted to purge them anyways, but Hitler refused, insisting that an unprovoked purge serves only to compromise the integrity of the Templar Order. On November 8th, 1923, Hitler's continued struggle against the Templar Leadership erupted in what is famously known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Templar leaders, now firmly entrenched as leaders of the Weimar Republic, considered Hitler a danger to the Cross. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, his Templar rank was stripped, and his branch of the Order disbanded. His agents were summarily executed for fear of spreading Hitler's "taint" to the rest of the Order.
Despite being stripped of his rank and his agents, many members of the Order remained loyal to Adolf Hitler. While in prison, Hitler composed a book containing his knowledge on what remained of the Brotherhood. The knowledge was hidden in a rather poorly written autobiography titled "Mein Kampf." With the right key, a rambling, overwritten tirade became a concise database on suspected Brotherhood groups, movements and activities.
During nearly a decade of research, Hitler's former agents had intercepted several key messages between Brotherhood groups. Nearly all of these messages pertain to a "great financial disaster" that would strike "before the decade is up." Whoever the Brotherhood is posing as now must be financially strong enough to survive a financial catastrophe. Considering the current financial state of the world in 1927, Hitler recognized the futility of trying to identify which group the Brotherhood hid themselves amongst. He focused instead his energy on consolidating his power within the Templar ranks.
In 1929, the American stock market crashed. Hitler observed this event with great interest as his new agents began observing the socioeconomic groups within Europe, paying special attention to those who remained financially stable as the rest of Europe descends into chaos and poverty.
Within all the groups of Europe, one particular social group raised glaring red flags to Hitler and his agents. The people of Jewish faith. The financial prowess of the Jewish peoples helped many members of the Jewish faith remain financially stable during the economic catastrophe. Hiding among the Jewish accountants and bankers allowed the Assassins to fund their activities without many questioning the origins of their wealth.
But the Jews were widespread and numerous. Rather than hiding their numbers in Brotherhood operated brothels or artist studios, the Assassins have chosen instead to hide amongst an entire race of peoples spreading across the entirety of Europe. In the time the Templars have wasted assuring themselves of Brotherhood destruction, the Assassins have slowly disseminated themselves across all of Europe, perhaps the entire world even. It was no longer a question of whether Hitler could eliminate the Brotherhood, now it was a question of whether or not Hitler could merely eliminate the Brotherhood... in Europe.
Resigned to the fate that he would have to leave eliminating the Assassins to future generations, Hitler set about his task to rid Europe of the Assassin scourge. Ironically, because the Assassins hid themselves among a group seemingly untouched by the Great Depression, nearly everyone resented those of Jewish faith for being seemingly untouched by the financial crisis (although Hitler himself knew that there were many Jewish families who were starving just as everyone else was.). Hitler used the spark of public indignation towards the Jewish... and fanned the flames into a sea of hatred. He promoted openly the ideas that the Jewish were the cause of everyone's suffering and poverty, that the Jewish were to be blamed for everything.
Few Templar and Brotherhood leaders took Hitler seriously. This suited Hitler just fine. He was not in a position of great enough influence to afford assassination attempts... yet. Slowly between 1930 and 1934, Adolf Hitler placed him and his allies into favorable positions, both in German politics and among the Templar ranks. Slowly but surely, the SS, Hitler's branch within the Templars, became a dominating force in the order, kept in check only by the hierarchical traditions of the Templar Order. In 1934, Templar Grandmaster Paul von Hindenburg, and current president of Germany, perished, and all semblances of control over the SS broke down. The Templar Order dissolved into chaos as Adolf Hitler succeeded Hindenburg as the Leader of Germany. A few short months later, Hitler declared himself Templar Grandmaster. For all intents and purposes, the SS and the Templar Order were one and the same. All those who opposed the SS soon found themselves face down in a ditch.
Finding himself in control of both the Templar Order and the Nation of Germany, Adolf Hitler began working on his two fold plan to root out Assassins in Europe. Considering that the Assassins hid themselves among an entire people, it was virtually impossible to identify individual members of the Brotherhood. But the seeds of hatred that Hitler has sown gave him another option, a terrible option. Thus in a meeting between top Templar Masters, Hitler uttered the most dangerous words ever to be said by a Templar.
"God will know his own."
Over six millions lives would be sacrificed
A/N: This is what happens when you study for a history exam WHILE your roommate plays Assassin's Creed. Your dreams become messed up beyond all recognition.