Gez a lot of you have no idea what you're talking about.
First of all Hyper99 Hitler did not shoot his family one by one before he killed himself. By the time the war started he had no family. He also only got married hours before he killed himself. The closest to a family he had was his dog which he tested his suicide posion on, before He & Eva swallowed their mouthfull each. That was Hitler's Propaganda Minister (kind of defeats the purpose of having a propanda minister if he's called the Propaganda minister), Goebbels who killed all his own daughters & his wife before killing himself.
Second, even by today there have been no papers discovered that link Hitler to the death camps. Of course he knew about them but he was a politician, so of course he knew about plausable deniability just as Reagan (Iran/Contra), Bush (CIA supplying drugs while he was director) & Clinton (turning the White house into a hotel for campaign dollars) always make sure they never give direct orders that can be linked back to them - everything is always spoken of in hypotheticals while winking at each other.
Now about Hitler having the families of all his officers killed, what a load of beloney. First of all millions of Germans were in uniform during the war, so thats a hell of a lot of families to kill. Bloody 'Bomber Harris' the boss of RAF's Bomber Command is probably responsable for more German Families dying than Hitler. Mind you he is indirectly responsable for millions of deaths. I think he you are referring to the attempt on Hitlers life by some of his officers, who the SS later executed by having them hung by piano wire. Even Rommel was suspect & the SS threatened to send his family to a concentration camp if he didnt commit suicide. So he swallowed the poison capsule he was given & it was announced he died of his war wounds (earlier on his staff car was straffed by a British Typhoon fighter bomber at Normandy) & given a heros funeral.
BTW, Hitler did not intimidate his way into power - He & his Nazis came second in the general election back in 1933. The Christian Democrates came first with nearly 35% of the votes, then the Nazis had nearly 25% of the vote, while both the Social Democrates & the Communists got about 20% of the vote each. As no party got a outright majority the Christian Democrates chose the Nazis as a coalition partner & formed a govt - the Wiemar Republic was a Cabinet style govt, where whoever had outright majority in Parliment (the Riechstag) formed a govt & their leader became Chancellor, while the President's job (von Hindeburg) was mostly ceromonial - however just as in the UK where the Army holds allegience to the king, in Germany the Army held allegiance to the President, not the Reichstag.
Well anyway Hitlers condition on the Nazis becomeing a junior partner in Govt with the Christian Democrats was that he be made Chancellor, even though most of the ministers were to be Christian Democrates. The Christian democrates figured that that be ok, as all bills would have to voted through cabinet (where all the ministers met) then through the Reichstag where the Nazis had less than a quarter the vote. However the Riechstag mysteriouslly burnt down, so special temporary powers were given to the president, von Hindeburg, till Parliment could meet again. Then von Hindeburg died (he was very old) & his special temporary powers were passed over to the Chancellor, Hitler, as Parliment could not meet to elect a new President as the Riechstag was still burnt down. So Hitler then got the Army to pass on their presidential allegence to him & every German officer was made to swear a personal oath of allegence to Hitler. So now hitler cancelled all future elections till the emergency was over, which of course never happened & he was dictator - they ended up blaming the communists for the burning of the riechstag & used that as an excuse to throw 'em all into concentration camps. Even today no one really knows who burnt it down, but many can guess who may have ordered its burning.
BTW Reitz is absolutelly right THE US was giving Britain & its allies massive help, even 18 mounths befor Pearl Harbour. Especially as far as the Atlantic war is concerned, which many beleive the Royal Navy may not had won without American help (actually they probably would have won, but it would have draged on for a lot longer without an end in site) - The Americans give Bitain 50 (or was it 100) mildy obsolete destoyers in exchange for some airbases in the Azores, which also helped the Bitish as it meant the Americans were patrolling the air arround the Azores which freed up RAF Coastal Command aircraft for other duties. Also we mustn't forget the many Liberty ships that were being produced in the North American shipyards that were being built to bring all the necessities of life across to Britain - the whole Liberty ship program started up even before the occupation of France, in the many shipyards of Canada & the US. Then with Lend Lease the US gave the Commonwealth Airforces thousands of P40 Tommahawks & Kittyhawks, of which a great percentage were used in North Africa against the Iltalians & the Afrika Korps, which freed up more Supermarine Spitfires for use in the Battle of Britain. Also there were the many General Stuart light tanks, M3 Grant & Lee tanks & the later M4 Sherman tanks that complimented the British Valentine, Matilda & Crusader tanks in the North African campaigns. Which helped to keep the Suez Canal in British hands. & all of this started occuring way before Pearl Harbour.