Throughout World War I, Hitler never rose above the rank of lance corporal, and beforehand had been an impoverished drifter. Yet within a few months of the end of the war, he had embarked on the path that was to lead Europe into years of war, terror and the Holocaust. What changed him? In this book, David Lewis pinpoints the key events in this transformation. He proves how Hitler emerged from the war with hysterical blindness, not blindness from mustard-gas poisoning as previously believed. He was treated by the controversial psychiatrist Edmund Forster, whose methods included telling patients how only the strength of their will and personality could bring them to recovery. Once Hitler found that by sheer will he could cure his own blindness, the next step was obvious to him.